Kunoichi Meet Akatsuki
by mewmewgodess
Summary: Ino, Hinata, Sakura, Tenten, and Temari are sick of their lives and leave. Suddenly they find themselves whisked into an adventure with some of the Akatsuki members. Rated T for language. COMPLETE EDITED
1. The Decision

_Chapter 1 - The Decision_

It was a normal summer night in Konoha. It was a nice, breezy friday night. Five kunoichi had the day off, and decided to have a girls night in. They tried to do so as much as possible, since they couldn't all get together as much as they would have liked. One was from a different village, one was in ANBU, one was involved in a lot of clan business, and the other two were constantly stuck training with the Hokage.

This friday night they decided to spend the night at Hinata's home. It was often at her house due to the fact that she had the most privacy. Coming to her place were her friends Tenten, Ino, Sakura, and Temari, who was spending the week in Konoha because of her job as the ambassador of Suna.

At six o'clock sharp all five of them were in Hinata's room, talking amongst each other, eating snacks, and generally having a good time. The only time they ever seemed to have a good time was during their get-togethers.

"So, how have you all been since the last time I was here?" Temari asked.

"I caught Shika with some other girl." Ino exclaimed, glad to finally get it off her chest.

"What?" The other four looked shocked at the blonde.

"He cheated on me!" She said, close to tears.

"Are you going to be alright?" Hinata asked, worried for her friend.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. He wasn't a very good boyfriend anyways...And how about you girls?" She asked the other four. She didn't really want to talk about it, and she was telling the truth. She and Shikamaru just weren't made for each other.

"I confessed my feelings to Sasuke, and he rejected me. Again."

"My father has officially made Hanabi the new heiress of the Hyuuga clan."

"My brothers are trying to force me into an arranged marriage with the Raikage."

"Neji called me a weak and defenseless girl."

Sakura, Hinata, Temari, and Tenten took their turn to say the worst of their happenings since their last meeting.

"Well, it seems we've all had a pretty crappy time lately." Ino remarked.

"Men suck." Tenten sulked.

"Not just men! Villages and their politics suck too." Temari added, and Hinata agreed.

"Then..." Ino started.

"Then what?" The other four inquired.

"Well, it's just that if our lives suck here...Why do we stay? What keeps us here?" Ino asked them.

The other four looked at each other speechless. They thought about it, and what she said struck a nerve.

"I...I don't know." Sakura replied in a lost voice.

"She's kind of got a point though...There's nothing keeping us here. We could just, leave." Temari spoke quietly, as if it were a taboo subject. Which in a way, it was.

"It could be fun. And nobody would miss us anyhow." Tenten said solemnly.

"Then let's leave. We can find a way to protect ourselves outside the village." Sakura's voice regained it's usual energy.

"Yes...There's a whole world out there, and since the only time were out there is during a mission, we don't get the chance to fully enjoy it." Hinata added truthfully.

"So, let's leave! Leave our old lives behind and start new ones." Ino stood up off the ground, where they were all seated, "Who's with me?" Her voice was full of positive energy.

"I am." Temari stood up as well. The others followed suit, the same enthusiasm clear in their words and faces. They all looked at each other "So, we're really going to do this." Temari was astounded with the decision they came to so quickly. The thought had been in their minds for quite some time already.

"Yes, and before we find our senses, we should leave tonight. At midnight, things are always more dramatic at midnight." Sakura was trying to add a little humor into the night. The others laughed softly.

"Yeah, wouldn't want that pesky sense coming back anytime soon." Tenten said. They spoke for a few minutes longer, making some arrangements, and then they went to their own homes.

They left Hinata's home at seven, and they spent the next five hours packing and figuring out some things.

Five hours later, the five of them were holding their bags looking out at the village, saying their silent goodbyes to everything. They had all written a letter to their family's explaining slightly what they were doing and not to worry, though they knew they'd be looked for.

"Do you guys realize that this is the last time we'll ever be in Konoha?" Hinata's soft voice sounding sad.

"Yeah, but we're women, we'll be fine." Temari said with a reassuring smile.

"Alright, let's head out." Tenten said in finality.

And so they ran out of the village leaving their old lives behind them and running to their new ones. They had no idea what was awaiting them in their near future.

* * *

AN: This story has been completely edited. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Little info bits, Sasori, Deidara etc. are alive.

Their ages are rather unimportant, but let's say that Hinata, Sakura, and Ino are 16, Temari 18, Hidan 19, Deidara 20, Itachi 21, and I don't know Sasori's age. He's just...Old.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this!  
Thanks for reading!  
-MewMew


	2. Join or Die

_Chapter 2 - Join or Die_

They ran for a full two days before finally deciding to take a break. They had run nonstop, trying to get as far away from Konoha as possible. They finally settled in the middle of a forest near the wave country. Sleeping bags laid out, they talked amongst each other.

"This is so fun! We're finally free!" Ino stated happily.

"Yeah!" The others agreed.

"I can be on guard for a couple hours." Hinata stood up.

"Alright, but if you get too tired feel free to wake me up." Sakura smiled at her.

"Thank you, goodnight." Hinata went and sat beside a tree, overlooking her friends. Temari and Tenten were already asleep, and Ino and Sakura were asleep within five minutes.

"Byakugan." She whispered. She looked around to see there wasn't much life except for the occasional deer and bird.

It was twenty minutes later that she saw two large chakra sources. She noticed that they were headed towards them and decided to wake up the others. She shook them awake, whispering their names.

"Mm...What?" Came Temari's groggy response.

"There are two large chakra sources headed our way." That quickly woke them up, and they went immediately into their fighting stances.

"They're over there." Hinata told them. They then went side by side, facing the area she had pointed to. Suddenly a half a dozen shuriken flew from that direction, and the kunoichi easily dodged them.

"Who's there?" Temari asked.

"Who are you, and why are you here, yeah?" Asked one of the two people. The two remained deep enough in the forest to be fully concealed by the darkness. The kunoichi were in a clearing well lit by the moon, which they quickly realized put them at a disadvantage.

The five shared a glance, and they all shared the same idea. A voice within them was telling them to tell the truth. A gut feeling.

"I'm Temari Sabaku, and these are Hinata Hyuuga, Tenten, Ino Yamanaka, and Sakura Haruno. We ran away from our village."

"Hm...Which village, yeah?" Came the same voice. It was a man's voice, they knew, and they noticed the speech impendiment.

"Temari is from Suna, and we're from Konoha." Tenten replied.

"Well, alright. I'm Deidara, and this is Tobi, yeah."

"Hi, I'm Tobi!" The two men walked out from the shadows, the shorter one being Tobi.

One was quite tall, and he had long blonde hair, some of it tied in a ponytail. He wore a large, black cloak with red clouds on it. His forehead protector had a deep scratch accross it. The other one was shorter, and he wore a bright orange mask to cover his face. Except for one hole over his right eyes. His black hair was visible, and he wore the same cloak as the other one.

"You guys are Akatsuki." Sakura stated. She recognized the cloaks.

"So what if we are, yeah?" The one called Deidara asked.

"Nothing just...Why are you guys so close to Konoha?" Ino asked curiously.

"Hm? We're not near Konoha, we're closer to the wave country, yeah." Deidara was obviously confused. He was mentally doing calculations, wondering if he was the one that was wrong. But he was pretty certain they were at the border to the wave country.

"Huh? How'd we get so far?" Sakura wondered aloud, none of them having realized just how fast they had come.

"Well, the further the better!" Ino's usual optimism stopped the confusion amongst them all.

"So, what are you guys doing here?" Temari asked the Akatsuki members.

"We're doing a mission!" Tobi replied enthusiastically.

"Tobi! You aren't supposed to tell them that!" Deidara scolded him.

"Sorry, Deidara-senpai!"

"What's the mission?" Tenten inquired.

"That's only for Akatsuki's knowing." Deidara replied, surprisingly professionally.

"If you became members we could tell you." Tobi said, surprising them all. They all stared at him in shock.

"What?" Sakura asked, wondering if she heard right.

"Well, the Akatsuki is looking for more members and you girls look capable." He was starting to make sense, but they continued to stare at him.

"Well..." Temari started.

"If you like we can have you meet our Leader, I suppose yeah." Deidara added, though he didn't much like the idea.

"Let's do this." Ino said, with energy in her tone.

"Explain." Temari told her. Wondering what Ino was thinking. The others were also curious.

"We wanted to start something new, this is the perfect oppurtunity! I know we haven't always gotten along with the Akatsuki but...We wanted to prove ourselves and by joining we'll be able to achieve that!" She explained to them.

"She's right..." Tenten agreed.

"So, will you come with us?" Tobi asked excitedly.

They shared one more look, and the message was clear. "Yes."

And they headed off to the Akatsuki base.

* * *

AN: Here's the second chapter! I put in Deidara's 'yeah' because, I know it's not actually true, I prefer it with it!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
Thanks for reading!  
-MewMew


	3. Becoming Members

_Chapter 3 - Becoming Members_

They stopped the following night after the kunoichi told the Akatsuki members that they hadn't slept in three days. They agreed to let them rest. They slept the night through, during which Tobi kept watch, and Deidara left for two hours. He went off to accomplish their mission, and he returned quickly with the scroll he and Tobi had been sent out to retrieve.

In the morning he cooked for them brreakfast, and after that, they were off once more. They talked about lots of different things. The girls were allowed a moment to speak sometime in the morning when Tobi and Deidara left them alone for a short while.

"This is certainly interesting." Tenten stated as soon as the two men disappeared.

Ino laughed, "Definitely!"

"I wonder when they'll start looking for us." Temari wondered aloud.

"I can't say for sure, but most likely very soon. They actually might have somebody sent already. That's why we should hurry and get to the base as soon as possible." Sakura said.

"You're right." Tenten agreed, "Konoha's not going to just let us go easily."

"True..." Sakura's voice was low and almost sad. They all understood just why. It was a widely known fact that Konoha was the hidden village with the most missing-nin. Which is just what they had become.

"But they really don't have anything to worry about. It's not like we're going to bomb the village or anything." Tenten said matter-of-factly.

"If you're bombing anything I expect to be invited, yeah." They heard a voice say from nearby. They looked to see Deidara and Tobi coming back. Deidara's hair was a bit wet from his bath in the spring nearby. (He'd insisted on having a bath. And Tobi had decided to tag along because..._Tobi was just freackin' weird._)

"No, no bombing anytime soon. Sorry." Temari laughed, but wondered what Deidara's deal with bombs was. It wasn't the first time they were mentionned, and upon further inquiry, Deidara had (though he obviously didn't want to) changed the subject.

They destroyed the few traces of their short stay in that particular part of the forest, and continued on their way. A few more hours of running, and they finally arrived at the Akatsuki base. Or their new home. It looked to be just on the outskirts of the wave country.

"And here's our hideout, yeah." Deidara put out his hands in front of him in a 'this is it' gesture. The girls looked at him unimpressedly, because before them stood a large rock. Nothing more, nothing less. Deidara pouted from their lack of enthusiasm, but opened up the way. He did a hand sign and the rock moved out of the way.

"What would of happened if we'd gotten this close without having met you first?" Temari asked out of curiosity.

"If you stopped to investigate we'd have to kill you. But if you just kept going we'd of done nothing, yeah." Deidara replied, and walked into the cave.

The others followed suit and once everyone was inside, Deidara made the rock close back over the hole. The second the rock covered the hole, lights within the cave turned on. They saw that they were in a long, extended hallway, and at the end stood a single, battered, door. A door that looked often replaced.

They went through that door to see a very lit hallway that had doors on either sides and at the end on the left there was a room used for meetings, and on the right there was a kitchen. At the complete end of the hallway there was a set of metal stairs that led to a set of doors.

"This place doesn't look that bad, for a bunch of guys I mean." Sakura said looking around.

"I like it. It's...Simple." Temari said with a small smile. The places simplicity was welcoming.

"We'll go see our Leader first, yeah." Deidara started making his way towards the double doors at the end of the hallway.

"Deidara-senpai! I will go see who else is here!" Tobi had just the time to finish his phrase before entering one of the rooms. Deidara just rolled his eyes and continued on his way.

Once at the two large doors, Deidara knocked. After a long minute they were told to enter.

"Hello, Leader-sama, yeah." Deidara gave a bow, and the girls followed suit, trying to give a good first impression.

"Deidara. Explain." Were the only two words out of the Leader's hidden mouth. The shadows hid him almost completely.

"The mission was completed," Deidara put a small, red scroll on the desk, "And Tobi and I have found five kunoichi willing to join Akatsuki."

"Names." Pein never asked anything. Only ordered.

"I am Temari Sabaku from Suna, they are from Konoha, Hinata Hyuuga, Ino Yamanaka, Tenten, and Sakura Haruno." Temari said, taking initiative.

"Give me a reason to let you join."

"We wish to prove to our home towns that we are stronger than they treated us. We have all had great training, such as I am ANBU captain, Temari was ambassador of Suna, Hinata was the Hyuuga heiress, and Ino and Sakura trained under Tsunade herself." Tenten explained.

"You may consider yourselves members, but I will be keeping a close tab on all of you. If you do as asked, and respect the other members, you will be able to remain here." Pein's strict and authorative voice rang through the air.

That's when the five kunoichi became Akatsuki members.

Once they left the room, Pein found himself accompanied by another dark figure.

"Good work, Pein." The dark and cold voice spoke.

"Why did you have me take them as members, Madara?"

"I don't have to explain myself. Just keep in mind that it will be beneficial to us in the end."

* * *

AN: Here's the next chapter! I hope you enjoyed reading it!  
Thanks for reading!  
-MewMew


	4. Rooms and Dinner

_Chapter 4 - Rooms And Dinner_

The six of them stepped out of the room in silence. They all felt a pressure off their shoulders. They were in.

"Wow..." Sakura murmured under her breath.

"It's...Weird." Temari said.

Deidara laughed, "You get used to it, trust me, yeah! Now let me show you your rooms. Two of you will share a room, the other three will share one, yeah." He lead them back down the hallway. He stopped in front of the third door on the left from the Leader's office. "Here's the room for two, yeah."

"Tenten and I can share that one." Sakura said, and the brunette nodded her approval.

"And the other three have the room right across, yeah." Deidara pointed to the door on his right. The two rooms were facing each other. "I'll come get you guys later. New members cook supper, yeah!" He walked away laughing. None of the members enjoyed cooking, and they forced it onto the newest member. Hidan will be happy, to say the least, that it would no longer be his responsability.

The girls shared a look, but shrugged their shoulders. They would get used to the way things were run around the base soon enough, they hoped. They agreed to put their things away and to meet up in either of the rooms. It wasn't a far walk, so they didn't really mind where they met up.

In each of the rooms were the required beds, a couple dressers, and absolutely nothing else. It seemed the bedroom really was only for sleeping. They left their bags next to their beds, just in case. They weren't sure just how comfortable they could let themselves be. They realized there wasn't much to actually be done and Tenten and Sakura walked into the other three's bedroom.

"This place is surprisingly...Cozy." Ino said, sitting cross-legged on her bed.

"Kind of." Temari agreed, "But I'm excited to meet the other members!"

"I've only heard of a couple of them, besides Deidara and Tobi. Those two seem rather nice though. I wonder why they're here." Sakura pondered the thought. Neither of their names said anything to her, so she couldn't associate them to any criminal activity that she'd ever heard of.

"I suppose we'll just have to wait and find out." Hinata's soft voice spoke up.

The girls spent quite some time talking amongst themselves. They never tired of talking, despite the fact that they often talked about the same things. Suddenly there was a large banging on the door. After it opened to show Deidara's grinning face, they realized that he probably considered that banging as knocking. They followed him out into the hallways, and afterwards into the kitchen.

"So, what have you been doing all this time?" Sakura asked him.

"Talked to some of the other members, and worked on my art, yeah." Deidara replied.

"Art?" Ino inquired.

"My art is a beauty that-" Deidara began but was quickly interrupted. "Don't make him start up on his moronic idea of what art is." A man walked out from the kitchen and they guessed he was headed back to his room.

"Master Sasori! My idea of art is not moronic! Art is only at its truest beauty in that fraction of a second before it disappears. The beauty that lasts only a second...That is true art!" The blonde quickly became engrossed in his passion for defending his art. Moments like these are the ones he treasures the most, because he knows he's right. To be able to fight for what he believes in...Not everybody has the opportunity to do that.

"Foolish child...Your eyes have yet to mature. You see things like a kid. Explosions, loud noises...What is the point? True beauty lasts forever. To be able to admire it whenever you wish, that is true art." Sasori defended himself. He had stopped to listen to what Deidara had to say, but he then continued his way to his room. Though he also enjoyed their arguments, he had things to finish. "We can finish this later." He brushed off whatever the other was going to say.

"Fine!" Deidara's reply matched Sasori's comparison. He whined, like a child. But he would prove in due time to his master that he wasn't a kid. He turned back to the girls, "Let's go then."

They entered the kitchen within seconds. It looked like any other kitchen. Cupboards, stove, fridge. The main essentials. Attached to the kitchen beyond an archway was a large table, it was old, and chipped, but it served its purpose. Meals, usually only supper, was the only time all the members came together and just...Spent time together.

"So...We're cooking supper for you guys?" Temari asked, although she already knew the answer. She just wanted to be certain. After all, she wasn't even used to cooking for herself.

"Yes, and we're going to be...Let's see..." He mumbled names under his breath and counted them on his fingers, "We'll be a total of 11 people, yeah."

"Anything specific you'd like to eat?" Tenten asked, opening the refridgerator door.

"...No, not really, yeah." Deidara wasn't used to being asked what he wanted to eat. He leant against one of the walls and watched the girls do the cooking. It was protocol. Somebody had to watch the new member, in this case members, cook in case they tried something.

The girls shared a look but went on doing what they were asked to do. Deidara was somewhat impressed by their partnership. Or, a word rarely used in the Akatsuki, their friendship. He had a feeling that it would prove helpful in the future.

Supper was completed within the hour, and they started putting it out on separate plates.

"Looks good, yeah!" Deidara said, looking at the food.

"Thanks, and you can help us by putting plates on the table." Ino handed him two plates.

"Fine." He grumbled ungraciously, but took the plates and made his way to the table. Within seconds the table was set up and all that was missing were the people. Luckily it was a large table, and all eleven of them could fit around it with ease. Deidara excused himself, and left to get the other members.

"We'll get to see some of the other members!" Ino said excitedly, taking her seat.

"I wonder what they'll say..." Sakura took her seat.

"We'll soon find out." Because as Tenten said that, the others began arriving. Deidara was first back, and he sat down at the table. Tobi followed suit, Sasori following behind. Three others that they would later find out to be Itachi, Kisame, and Hidan came in last.

And thus, supper began.

* * *

AN: Here's the new chapter! I hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks for reading!  
-MewMew


	5. Supper questions

_Chapter 5- Supper Questions_

None of the members paid much attention to the five kunoichi except for the two who knew them slightly. The five kunoichi were seated as such, on the seat furthest from the door was Hinata, then Temari, Tenten, Ino and Sakura. In front of Hinata was Tobi, then it went, Deidara, Sasori, Kisame, Itachi then Hidan. They started eating in silence, the silence was a bit irritating. The five kunoichi were used to talking with their family's or friends when having supper, this was different for them. Of them all, there was at least one willing to announce her displeasure of such a silence.

Temari looked up from her food, "What's the point of eating together if you're not going to talk to each other?" The five members looked up from their food. Tobi wasn't eating for some reason, she guessed that he didn't want to take off his mask, so he was already looking up. Itachi and Sasori had looked down soon after and continued eating, not really interested in the five anyhow. Hidan, Deidara, and Kisame were all paying attention to what she was saying, though none of them replied.

Ino, Tenten, and Sakura had looked up from their food as well, a bit shocked by how she just spoke to them like that. Hinata was still looking at her food. She out of the four knew Temari the best, and wasn't that surprised by her straight-forwardness.

The four who were paying attention didn't know how to reply, but gladly Tobi spoke, "Tobi has absolutely no idea." He said using the only explanation possible. She didn't look a hundred percent happy with that answer but decided to accept it.

"Tobi-san, do you mind me asking why you speak in third person?" Tenten asked him, trying to be at least a bit more polite than Temari when asking her question, "You've got to admit, it's a bit weird." Ino said from beside her. Tenten nudged her, receiving a whispered 'ow' from her blonde companion. Sasori rolled his eyes at them. He was one of the more mature members and was getting annoyed with them. He didn't really trust them, but on the orders of their Leader he wasn't allowed to hurt any of them, no matter how irritating they were.

"Not at all! For Tobi it is a hard habit to break. Tobi has always spoken in third person." Tobi answered them. They were okay with that answer. They also had some hard habits to break, "Do you guys always eat together during supper?" Sakura asked next.

Tobi nodded, "Everyone who's not on a mission eats together." Sakura nodded, accepting the answer. They liked Tobi. That was something they had all decided. He was talkative, and he was quite energetic to.

"Except for Leader-sama and his girlfriend, yeah." Deidara added.

"That guy has a girlfriend?" Ino asked him shocked.

"She's some long-time friend or something. And I don't think she's really his girlfriend." Kisame said, stopping the 'gossip' as it started. Ino pouted. She loved gossip. It kind of reminded her of home. As that thought crossed her mind, she stopped pouting and went into a false smile, trying to cover up the wave of home-sickness that hit her.

Well she wasn't very good at covering up her feeling, the other girls knew she was homesick. They tried to help her out of it. "I just realized something. You and Deidara-san just might be long-lost cousins." Sakura told her with a smile. Ino's smile turned into a real one.

Deidara's eye twitched, "Do you mean I look like a girl?" He asked keeping his voice in check. He hated when people thought he was a girl. It happened more times than he cared to count, and had been violent on many of those incidents.

Tobi smiled under his mask. Even Sasori's lip twitched slightly. Both knew how he hated being called a girl. Temari caught on quickly and grinned. "Yes Deidara-san. She meant exactly that." Her grin grew wider as his eye twitched and he glared at her.

Hinata was looking at the exchange quietly. She saw how Deidara looked about ready to blow something up and decided to say something. "That's not what she meant!" She said and almost started stuttering at the end when the others started looking at her.

"Yeah, ignore Temari. She loves pissing people off." Tenten said trying to take the embarrassment off her lavender-eyed friend. Hinata looked back down at her plate with a red face.

Luckily though Deidara had relaxed. "Well, it was fun while it lasted." Temari smirked. He glared at her. Her friends said nothing, but were all thinking the same thing. Why must she irritate others the way she does? But it was something they liked about her.

"Tobi will bring his wonderful food to his room. He thanks the kunoichi very much for supper." Tobi said excusing himself from the table. They nodded and he left quietly.

The rest of supper was remotely quiet. The kunoichi did try to start a conversation a couple of times. The only one's who spoke were Deidara, Kisame, and Hidan though.

* * *

AN: Thanks much for reading!

-MewMew


	6. The Prophecy

_Chapter 6- The Prophecy_

Supper was nearly over when they heard something like a knock. It was a low thudding sound that appeared to be coming from outside, near the front door (Well, rock.) The first question in all their minds was how on earth anyone knew they were there. The second question was, if they knew the Akatsuki was there, why they would knock. None of the members knew quite what to do. It had never happened before for an outsider to know on the door.

They looked at each other a moment before Deidara spoke, "Who's going to answer the door?"

"I'll do it." Sasori spoke for the first time that night. He was getting annoyed with the silent thudding anyway.

He was in his normal form. Or human-puppet form. Whatever you want to call it. He walked down the hall followed by most of the others. He opened the door leading to the hall that led to the big rock, "You all should stay here." He told them and continued on his way. They, as in the rest of the members, their curiosity having been too much for them. But they remained where they were asked to.

Sasori reached the rock silently. He stood there a moment. He sent chakra under the rock to see how much chakra that person possessed, it wasn't much. The person was obviously no threat to him so he made a hand sign and the door opened to reveal an old man. Sasori stared at him. The others walked up behind Sasori also looking at the old man.

This old man was short. Shorter than all of them. He wore a yellow kimono with wooded sandals. He had a brown beaded necklace. He was bald with a white moustache and beard. On his back there was a large scroll that looked a few decades old. They weren't sure what to make of this. It's not every day an old man goes to your secret hideout with a giant scroll.

He was the first one to speak, "Hello, young ones. You've all grown up well. Come on out now. I need to speak with you all." The old man said to them as if he were their grand-father or something. He backed up enough so that the ten could walk out slowly. They were all curious as to what this man could want with them. They walked out with all their senses on alert.

"Hmm...Well let's get down to business then." He said seriously as all ten of them stood before him.

"Who are you? And what business?" Tenten asked the man the questions they were all wondering.

"Right...I am Satoshi and I'm here to tell you all of a prophecy." He told them and took the scroll from off his back.

"What does a prophecy have to do with us?" Kisame asked the man now known as Satoshi.

"You'll see. I was just sent to deliver the prophecy. Not explain it." Satoshi started unrolling the scroll.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Temari mumbled to herself.

"Here I'll read it to you and you can spend some time thinking it over. If you think real hard, answers just might come to you." And then he started reading out the prophecy:

_On the day of the blackened sky.  
__One who is darker than the darkest day  
__Will arise from where he lay  
__Only those close to you, are whom you can rely_

_Only ten working together  
__Can answer everyone's prayer  
__But first they must go so much higher  
__To reach the Golden Empire_

"What's that supposed to mean?" Deidara asked no one in particular.

"You'll have to figure it out." Satoshi said and gave him the scroll, "I'll be seeing all of you soon enough." He then disappeared in thin air. Not a trace of his presense remained. The ten stared at where the old man was just a moment ago before they looked back at the scroll.

"The first part is easy enough, there's going to be an eclipse, then someone very evil will come and we can only rely on the one's closest to us. The second parts a bit trickier." Sakura said taking the scroll from Deidara's hands so she could see it better.

"Only ten working together...We're ten so that must be us. Everyone's prayer...I guess if he's bad people will pray for him to be gone. Makes sense, but the last two phrases I can't figure it out." Sakura sighed re-reading the prophecy.

"You got the first six lines so don't fret. What's a Golden Empire?" Kisame said taking the scroll from the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Am I the only one still wondering about the Satoshi guy?" Tenten asked them as they were still trying to figure out the last two phrases of the prophecy.

"There was something weird about him." Temari agreed.

"Especially when he said 'I'll be seeing all of you soon enough'." Deidara said remembering the man's last words.

Hinata watched them talk. She now had the scroll in her hands. She thought she knew what it was. "Do you know what it means Hinata?" Temari asked from next to her seeing Hinata looking at the scroll biting her lip trying to make a decision.

"I...I think I do." Hinata told her.

"Really? What do you think?" Temari was hoping it was the right thing.

Hinata held up her finger, "I'll be right back." And she went back into the base to go get something giving Temari the scroll. The others didn't seem to notice. For a moment at least.

"Where's Hinata?" Deidara asked Temari as he was the first to notice her disappearance.

"She thinks she might know what the last two lines of the scroll mean. She went into the base to get something." And a minute later Hinata came back out with a book in her hand.

"What's that?" Deidara looked at the little blue book.

"I think it might have the answer..." She said and flipped through the book and stopped when she found the page she was looking for, "This is it." She showed him the page.

**He walked up the steps slowly.  
****He didn't know what awaited him.  
****All he knew is that he had ended up here.  
****He wasn't quite sure where here was though.  
****That was before a loud booming voice spoke.  
****"Welcome, to the Golden Empire.  
****Where those whose life has ended come."**

Those words were written on the page neat and beautiful. It was hand written and the writing was an old cursive style. The book was pretty small, it had a blue cover with no title. The pages had pictures with the texts written below them.

"What kind of book is this?" Deidara asked after reading it.

"I found it sometime ago. Near a lake. It's a good story." She told him looking at the blue book.

"Sounds like it. So you think that's the answer?"

"I'm not sure..." She said uncertainly.

"Well, it's the only lead we got. How about we tell the others?" She nodded and they went more towards the others.

"Um...I think this is the answer." Hinata said getting their attention and she showed them the page.

"I've seen that book before." Itachi said looking at it intently, "Can I see it for a moment?" He asked her and she nodded handing him the book.

He flipped through the pages, "Where did you get this book?"

"Uh...I found it near a lake." She muttered, avoiding the intense gaze he was giving her.

He frowned slightly. "Why is this book so important to you?" Ino asked him.

"No reason." He replied and gave her the book back. There was a reason though. That reason was that his mother used to read him that book and his mother had told him that it was the only book like it. The last time he saw it, it was in the library at his home.

"'Where those whose life has ended come.'" Sasori repeated the last line from the book, "Does that mean we have to die?"

"Or go into a state of death." Hidan spoke up into the silence.

"How would any of us do that?" Temari asked. They were all really stumped as to what to do.

* * *

AN: Thanks much for reading!

-MewMew


	7. Fire Zone

_Chapter 7- Fire Zone_

"I think they may need help." A man with wild, black hair said. He had bandages over his eyes and he wore a white robe with a crimson sash. He didn't wear any shoes and he carried with him a gold staff with a ruby at the top.

The person next to him looked at him, "I do believe you're right." He said stroking his beard. The two were looking into a giant puddle of water which reflected an area down on Earth that they chose. They were watching as the ten were trying to figure out the prophecy.

"Alright then. You will go down there and send them to where they need to be sent. Put them in their elements, I'm sure you who has what elements by now. You remember the four destinations correct?" As the other male nodded he turned and walked away.

"Oh and Satoshi? Don't help them too much, they're going to need to figure things out for themselves later on."

"Yes, Izuna-sama." Satoshi said, bowing. As Izuna disappeared out of view he let out a sigh and looked back towards the puddle, "I'm not sure we can count on them, but Izuna is sure, and he is the one who wrote the prophecy." And with that, he disappeared.

* * *

Satoshi stood in a tree, unnoticed by the shinobi. He had made no sound, and he had no chakra to track. No one could detect him, unless he wanted them to. Which at the moment, he did not. He would have to do this perfectly.

One thing everyone should know about him was, he liked making life as difficult as he could for himself. And that's why, in his hand there were ten senbon. He could have easily just used magic to knock them out, but of course not, not Satoshi. The evening light shone off them and he pulled back both his hands, each with five senbon in them.

He threw them all with perfect precision. They shot through the air with absolutely no sound what so ever. Satoshi held his eyes closed, waiting for the sound of the ten bodies slowly falling to the ground. They eventually did. It seemed a few of them wouldn't let themselves lose consciousness. It didn't matter, as long as they were drowsy, it didn't matter.

Satoshi walked over to them and picked up the fallen book. It lay open at the page that was ever so useful to the shinobi. He looked at the image, the tall brunette man in the picture was standing at the top of a staircase surrounded by pillars that were white with golden threads around them.

He closed the book and put it in Hinata's weapon pouch. With a snap of his fingers, he and the ten teens disappeared.

* * *

The four groups were placed where they needed to be. Satoshi decided that he was going to go with the group in the fire zone first. Fire was a tricky element to deal with, a person could easily lose control of it, and that was highly dangerous. He knew that the three who were in this zone would need to know what they had to do first. What he called the 'Fire Zone', others would call a fire dome. The three whose elements are that of fire, were put inside a dome of just that, fire. They couldn't get out by going through it, or going under it. They would have to think this through.

Eyes flew open and three people stood up, plucking the senbon from their necks. Flames flickered in their eyes as their stared at the fiery walls surrounding them. Red, yellow, and orange were all they saw. They finally turned their gazes upon each other.

"What...The...Fuck?" The Jashinist breathed out slowly, "Where the hell are we?"

"I can't see anything behind the fire. It's too thick." Sakura said. Even as the flames flickered, there just seemed to be even more flames behind them.

"Itachi, you know some fire jutsu, do you know what the hell this is?" Hidan asked the raven-haired Uchiha.

He shook his head slowly, "I've never seen this kind of jutsu before."

"That's because it isn't a jutsu." They turned around quickly to see who had suddenly appeared. They all wondered how he got in, since they all knew he hadn't been there a few seconds ago. Whether it be transportation jutsu or something else, they weren't sure.

"Fuck...Not you again!" Sakura was getting annoyed with Hidan's constant swearing, but she had to agree with him on that one. The old man from before, the one who gave them the prophecy, stood before them. "What the hell are you doing here? It's your fault isn't it? You and your damned prophecy!"

Satoshi smiled, he rather liked the enthusiasm, even if he spoke words of the devil, "I'm here to explain the situation to you. I am the one who brought you here, but the prophecy wasn't my doing."

"Alright, so what's with the fire dome?" Sakura asked.

"Hm..." Izuna hadn't told him how much to tell them. Satoshi had to guess that he wanted to tell them the most important bits himself, so he'll give them a vague concept of what's going on, "You three are in an alternate universe, and you are to get through these walls of fire, and make it to your destination."

"Fuck that, this is all a Genjutsu, right Uchiha boy?" Hidan turned to Itachi once more, and ignored the glare sent towards him.

Sharingan activated, he looked around. "You'll see this is all real. If I had decided to use Genjutsu, even your Sharingan wouldn't be able to see through it anyways." Satoshi told him with a small sigh. He had expected them not to believe him, and waited patiently for the Uchiha to announce the truth.

"He's telling the truth. We really are stuck in a dome of fire. The Sharingan can see through Genjutsu, but it can also see the amount of chakra a person has, and you don't have any. How is that possible?" Itachi asked him.

"I'll introduce myself more properly once you've reached the Destination. Now that you all know the truth, I'll give you one hint to help you get out of here." Satoshi replied calmly.

"What is this Destination?" Sakura asked.

_Will the questions never cease..._Satoshi thought, but answered none the less, "The Destination is what's going to lead you to the one who's going to fully explain the prophecy to you. If you've got more questions, don't ask them. There will be a time for questions later on, and there are more people I have to deal with as well. So here's your hint. Fight Fire with Fire."

"I'm guessing the others are also stuck in situations like ours." Sakura ended it in a statement rather than in a question purposely.

"Clever. But yes, they are. And with that, I bid thee good luck, and I shall be coming back soon to see how you've progressed." And with that, he disappeared before their eyes.

"Crazy 'oul bastard..." Hidan mumbled to himself.

"More like crazy 'oul situation." Sakura sighed, "He said to fight fire with fire, but I don't know any fire jutsu."

"I don't either, the only one who does is Itachi." Hidan turned to look at the Uchiha, "So?"

"Why do you think I have all the answers?" Itachi asked the Jashinist.

"Bitch...You act like you do!" His comeback was half an insult, and somewhat of a compliment. Well, if you think of it that way anyways.

"I'll do as he said. I'll try fighting fire with fire, but I don't believe it'll work." The Uchiha did multiple seals, and used his Grand Fireball Jutsu on the fire wall.

The result was bizarre. As the large fireball hit the wall, it didn't disappear, or even become part of the existing flames. It went right through the flames, but as it did, the walls closed in right behind it, before they could even see what was on the other side.

"Well...That was fucked up." Came the voice to all their thoughts, "Urg, this is so stupid, why can't he just bring us back?" Hidan complained.

"This isn't the time to be complaining. If neither of you have realized it yet, this is serious, and we must deal with this quickly." Itachi said sternly.

"What do you mean? I'm sure if we wait the Satoshi guy will let us out." Sakura asked curiously. She wasn't too intimidated, knowing that even if she is with two criminals, being stuck in a dome of fire is worse.

"It seems I am the only one to notice. As we speak, the diameter is shrinking, and it'll be non-existent in approximately 3 hours." The Uchiha's words spoke no lie. The diameter has shrunk about 2 centimeters since they've first woken up.

"Fuck." Both the Jashinist and the pinkette spoke simultaneously.

"I suppose I could try Amaterasu..." Itachi mused softly, in a monotone voice. Reactivating his Sharingan, he focused chakra into his eyes, and opened them once again to reveal the Mangekyou Sharingan. Suddenly they felt Satoshi's presence with them once again.

"I suggest that you don't try using your Amaterasu. It'll only complicate things for all of you. This dome is made of fire in its truest and purest form." Satoshi spoke and they turned to look at him. Itachi deactivated his Mangekyou Sharingan, and the Sharingan.

"Really? Are you fucking shitting me? Do you mean that _this _is made from _The _Fire?" Hidan couldn't believe his ears. The Fire was extremely hard to come by. Nearly impossible infact.

Satoshi smiled, "Yes, this is The Fire. I'm sure your two friends would like an explanation, would you do the honors? I must leave you all, farewell." And with that, he disappeared once again.

Hidan grinned and started the explanation, "I'm not surprised that neither of you have heard of The Fire. It's a rare Fire, found in only two parts of the world. Well, I suppose it's now three. But anyways, this fire doesn't come from humans, and that is the reason it's so rare. For the only species to be able to produce these flames, are the Master Dragon's."

Sakura had an are-you-kidding-me look, "Dragons? Really? How'd you come up with that? Besides, how would you know about this Fire?" Questions flew from her lips, and Hidan looked insulted.

"I wouldn't lie about something so important! I know about the Fire, because I've had some in my possession since the day of my birth. And I can prove it too." Hidan rummaged through his weapon pouch for a second, then pulled out a little glass tube. Inside this glass tube, was a small flickering flame.

"How long has that fire been lit?" Itachi asked.

"Over 18 fucking years. And not once have I needed to do anything to keep it lit. Fire in its truest and purest form, or a Dragon's flame, is made from energy and air. It doesn't need anything else to live. I've used this flame for training countless times, and I know how we're supposed to get out of here. I also know the reason the Fire is shrinking. It's slowly coming back to its original shape. Which, is this." He held up the tube to show the size. The flames original shape, is the same as the small flame in the tube.

"You said it lives off of energy and air. I suppose chakra would do the same thing?" Sakura started forming a theory, as well as the Uchiha.

"Exactly. To train, I used to put chakra in my hands, and separate the Fire into each one. I used to spend hours training my chakra. It was great for chakra control. Here, I'll show you how to manipulate this flame. After we can try to control the Fire around us, and put it with the Fire I already have." Hidan took the top off the glass tube, and focusing chakra to his hands, tilted the tube to let the flame glide into his hand. Putting the tube and its lid in his weapon pouch, he put chakra in the other hand, to grab the flame with both hands.

He separated it into two parts, "Concentrate chakra into both of your hands and I'll give you some of the Fire. Concentrate fully, or it will go wild, and we really don't want that to happen. It needs to be carefully controlled." Hidan grinned, he took pride in being the one to figure out what to do. The others in the organization didn't think much of him, he knew that, but now, he felt that he proved to himself that he had more to give than immortality.

Standing in front of the Haruno, he gently put the flame from his right hand, onto her outstretched hands. She slowly put her hands around the flame. "It's so...Pure." Sakura breathed out as the Fire's energy slowly melded with her chakra.

Hidan separated the fire in his left hand again, and gave that part to Itachi, keeping some for himself, "Try changing its shape and never stop the flow of chakra in your hands." They spent some time practicing. Both Itachi and Sakura were good at chakra control, so they did rather well.

Once Hidan grabbed the other two parts, and put the flame back in the glass tube, Sakura asked him something, "Hidan, who taught you about this Fire and the Dragons?"

He flinched, "That...Was my mother. She told me everything she knew, and when I asked how she knew so much, she told me that it was a real Master Dragon who had told her. I didn't quite believe her at first, but now, I'm sure she was telling the truth. My mother was a lovely person. Never told a lie, and she took great care of me." Hidan's voice was soft as he spoke of his mother.

"Was? Did you end up sacrificing her?" Itachi asked, voice a bit cold. He knew Hidan's ways, and even if he acted like he cared for his mother, his 'Jashin-Sama' always came first.

Hidan shook his head slowly, "I was told that I had to in order to fulfil my duties, to become a true believer. But I could never do it. Her smiling face was always there whenever I was told to do it. I refused, even if it meant giving up everything I had worked so hard to achieve. My mother was the only person I was never able to kill, just like you could never do so to your little brother." Hidan looked at the Uchiha, staring him in the eyes. A kind of, mutual sentiment passed through them.

"But then...What did happen to her?" Sakura asked, sympathy shone in her eyes. No one should have to grow up without a mother.

"Well, it seems that Jashin-sama wanted her whether I was the one to kill her or not. She, she went outside to come get me. I'd been training. It was pouring outside, and a storm was coming. But as she came into my sight, calling my name, the only person who cared and loved me was taken from me by the Gods. My beloved mother was struck by lightning. The only thing that no one can outrun." He closed his eyes and let out a sad sigh.

Sakura's eyes widened, "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."

Hidan grinned, "Nah, it's alright. She was a great woman, she deserved to be talked about." But even so, he decided to change the subject, "We should take care of this dome before it burns us to death. Even if I'm immortal, I'm not sure if this Fire can kill me or not. It has magic in it after all, and I'm not really in the mood to figure it out."

Itachi nodded, "Yes, you're right." They made a plan and went into their places. Small flames are easily controlled by yourself, but this is a much larger Fire, they'll have to work together to control it.

Both Itachi and Sakura had both of their hands with chakra in them, and Hidan only had one. He was using his other hand to hold the glass tube. They were going to put the dome's fire in there, along with the one Hidan already had. They stood in the shape of a triangle and held their hands out towards the Fire. Everything was going well, they lift up the Fire, and put themselves on the outside of the dome. They then started closing the dome, shrinking the Fire. But once Hidan grabbed the now small flame and tried to put it in the tube along with his own, something happened.

Suddenly, Hidan's flame burst out of the tube, and collided fiercely with the other one, "Fuck!" The flame was pushed out of his hand, and he ducked, avoiding the Fire. The two pushed against one another, and they formed two large disks, spinning above their heads. Itachi and Sakura had ducked as they saw the Fire come out of the tube.

"What's going on?" Sakura asked, raising her voice above the sound of the Fires pushing against each other.

"I never even considered the fact that the two Fires' may be from different Dragons. Flames that are from two different dragons can never be in the same area together, or else they battle it out. Just as if they were the Dragon's themselves. Do either of you have another of these tubes?" Itachi took one out from his weapon pouch, "Good, you and Sakura will get the one on the bottom, and I'll grab the one on top once you've captured the first one."

Itachi and Sakura slowly brought Hidan's original Fire into Itachi's glass tube. The Jashinist put chakra into his hand and tried to bring the Dome's Flame into the tube, but he found it difficult to control the large Fire disk with only one hand. Itachi handed the tube to Sakura, and aided Hidan. A few moments later, Hidan was closing the lid on his tube, and let out a long sigh.

"Thanks, and I'm sorry, I'd completely forgotten to check if they were from the same Dragon or not." Hidan apologized with a small grin and a shrug.

"It's fine, besides we're free now!" Sakura smiled, and now the three looked at their surroundings. They were stepping on gravel, and all around them there was nothing but darkness. Except for in the darkness, shone a large shape of light. It was oval-ish, and it was the only light in the area.

"I suppose that's our way out." Hidan said, and they all slowly walked over to the light, he gently put his hand on the light, and his hand went through it, "I'll go through first, I'll come back if it's not a death trap." And with that, he entered his whole body through the portal. It was mere seconds before he came back, grinning.

"This is the Destination thing he was talking about, come on!" And he went back through. Sakura looked at Itachi and shrugged, and she went through next. Itachi looked around, sighed, and went through the portal himself, leaving the darkness behind.

* * *

AN: Thanks much for reading!

-MewMew


	8. Water Zone

_Chapter 8 - The Water Zone_

Kisame woke up when he felt a splash of cold water hit his face. It was a most unpleasant awakening. He was unconcerned when he opened his eyes and saw water all around him, he could breathe in water after all, and didn't panic. He looked around until he spotted what he was looking for. Somebody else was in this endless water. He swam up to her and remembered her name within moments of seeing her. Tenten.

That's when he remembered what had happened. He plucked out the senbon from his neck. He grabbed Tenten around the waist and looked around. It took a moment for him to figure out where it seemed like there was the most light. That's where he swam, bringing the brunette with him. He swam as quickly as he could. She wouldn't last much longer. The further he swam, the closer it seemed he was to the surface. He had luckily chosen the right direction.

Soon enough they burst through the water, they both took large intakes of air. Tenten started to gasp, coming into consciousness. She coughed up water. Kisame let her go when she seemed to know what was going on. They swam in place for a second, looking around.

The sky was dark, explaining why he had trouble figuring out which way the surface was. Dark clouds and ferocious waters as far as the eye could see. Every few seconds the two were pushed under water by a large wave. After the third time, they used chakra to stay above water, trying to ignore the water splashing around them.

"What's going on?" Tenten asked, pulling the senbon out from her neck with a flinch. The water had pushed it in deeper, and her neck was in pain.

"The last thing I remember is being hit by that thing." Kisame pointed at the senbon she was holding tightly in her hand.

Suddenly, a voice could be heard above the clash of waters, "Hello! Glad to see you both made it out."

Both Kisame and Tenten looked around, trying to find the source of the voice, but there was nobody. "I'm not going to appear, because I'd rather not get wet. Don't worry, where the two of you are headed, there's not going to be any water!" The words held secrets that neither of them could understand at the moment.

"Where are we supposed to go? And who are you?" Tenten had a feeling she knew the person who was speaking.

"I'm Satoshi, and as to where you're going, it's called the Destination. I can't tell you more than that about where you're going, but I can give you a hint about how you're supposed to get there." Tenten and Kisame shared a glance, Satoshi was the guy who gave them the prophecy, and they both guessed that he was the one who'd knocked them out.

"A hint would be appreciated." Tenten said, because she had no idea what they were looking for. They were both utterly clueless, and it frustrated her.

"Your hint is '_the peace of the ocean follows the inner feelings of the heart'._ Think and the answer will come to you." The voice grew fainter during his second phrase, then vanished completely.

"That's extremely cheesy, and I have no idea what it means, do you?" Kisame asked.

Tenten shook her head with a sigh, she had no idea, "Well, maybe one of us has heard it somewhere. I don't think it's the kind of phrase that would be said in Konoha, but maybe they said it in the Mist? Do you remember anybody mentioning it?" Tenten asked him. Villages have many quotes, but usually something that has to do with the village, Konoha had the whole thing with 'the will of fire', perhaps the Mist had something similar that had to do with oceans.

"_The peace of the ocean follow the inner feelings of the heart..._I've never heard that anywhere. My old teammates were the only people who I listened to, and they weren't the kind of people who spoke quotes." Kisame sat down on the water, fixing his swords position.

Tenten followed suit, sitting cross-legged on the water. She continued to look around, absentmindedly touching her hair. The hair bands were fighting strongly against the water, Tenten started to mumble to herself, as she did when she was deep in thought, "Ocean...Peace...Inner Feelings..." She untied her hair and retied it, "Hair ...Teammates ...Neji!" She suddenly jumped up, surprising Kisame who had been listening to her ramble on.

"What?" He asked watching as she paced on top of the water. A large wave hit them, but she didn't seem to notice, catching her balance quickly.

"Neji! He's my teammate, and he had this thing for quotes. I remember him saying that to me once!" She continued before Kisame could say anything, "We were training, and he started to meditate. He does that a lot. And I decided to ask him why he meditates, and he said that _peace of the ocean follow the inner feelings of the heart. _Usually I didn't bother asking the meaning behind his quotes, but this was different than the other ones. So I asked him 'What the fuck does that mean?' right? Then he said 'things become clearer if the heart is clear.' I didn't bother to ask for more explanations after that, 'cause I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere."

Kisame listened as she spoke. She started off sounding like she was talking to him, then ended up sounding as if she were talking to one of her girlfriends. Like it was some sort of gossip. He decided not to ruin her fun by pointing this out. "Alright, but what do you think it means? Because I'm still lost."

Finally, Tenten turned to look at him, "I think, that these waves are actually being created by us. By our emotions! I've been really pissed off lately, so it explains why the waters are dangerous. I think that we need to meditate!" She smiled, looking pleased with herself.

"Alright...I suppose..." Kisame was doubtful, but it made sense with the quote, and they had no other leads than this. They sat side by side with their legs crossed. They put their hands on their knees and kept their backs straight. They breathed evenly, calming themselves.

They tried their best anyways. The waves crashing into them was making keeping balance difficult, and the wind blowing their wet clothes made them shiver, but the more they ignored it all, the calmer it seemed to get. Tenten had done some meditating before and knew that it was difficult finding the inner peace that this required. She was currently pissed off at the one who'd (Unknowingly) helped her figure this out. Neji had been insulting, but she knew that perhaps he hadn't truly meant it as such. Maybe he was just being truthful.

Compared to Neji, she could be considered weak, but she knew that she wasn't. She had made ANBU captain for a reason. She calmed down, thinking about how much she'd grown in the past years. She was proud to be where she was at the moment.

Kisame on the other hand, found this pointless. His emotions weren't 'unpeaceful', he didn't think he really needed to do this at all. But he figured that if he didn't, it might stop her from reaching her own peace, and if she was right, getting them out of here. He thought about where they were going to go next, and he wondered what had happened to the others.

They were both in such deep thought that they hardly noticed that the waves had gotten soft, that the wind was nearly non-existent, and that the sun had begun to shine. They opened their eyes once the sun's heat began to warm them up and to dry their clothes. Neither knew how long they'd spent meditating, it could have been five minutes, like it could have been an hour. But when they stood up and looked at the calm waters around them, they understood why they did what they were asked to do.

To truly be powerful, one must have inner peace, or else unresolved feelings can get in the way. Things could be seen much more clearly when peace resides in their hearts.

Once the sun was fully visible, a bright light emitted from it. The light landed above the water and formed a door. They shielded their eyes from the light, but found out that its brightness did not effect their eyes. They looked at each other.

"This must be that 'Destination' thing that guy was talking about." Kisame said.

"Probably. Let's go through, maybe we'll find the others!" Tenten said excitedly.

Kisame grinned, "Maybe."

The two walked through the portal, reaching the Destination.

* * *

AN: Thanks much for reading!

-MewMew


	9. Wind Zone

_Chapter 9 - The Wind Zone_

Sasori looked around calmly. He had not been knocked out, and had taken the senbon out of his neck as soon as the light had disappeared. He wasn't the only one there. Temari and Hinata were also there, but they were unconscious. Sasori hadn't woken them right away, wanting to assess the situation first. They were in a cave. A cave with only one exit. This exit did not look any bit appealing. The winds were so strong that sand and rocks were constantly zooming past the entrance. He could barely see out into the distance.

He'd searched for other possible exits, feeling the walls for hidden passageways, but there were none. After a couple minutes, he woke up the two kunoichi. They were laying on the ground, looking rather uncomfortable. Sasori had taken the two seconds it took to take out the senbons though.

Temari woke up first. Her teal eyes blinked repeatedly, eyes looking around sleepily, "What's going on?" She asked, sitting up. She looked over at Sasori who was currently shaking Hinata, trying to wake her.

"I'm not sure what happened, but I do know were in a cave with the only possible exit being that." He said, pointing at the cave's opening.

"Geez...Even Suna's winds don't get that bad." She said, standing up.

Hinata woke up and looked around in the same dazed fashion as Temari, she looked at the other two, "What happened?" She asked softly, standing up slowly.

Temari shrugged her shoulders, "Beats me. We got knocked out and now were in a cave in the middle of nowhere."

"I'll use my Byakugan..." Hinata said. Temari nodded and she then proceeded to activate her blood-line limit. Sasori observed quietly, not quite knowing what the Byakugan was. He's heard of the blood-line limit that resided within the Hyuuga clan, but he never knew exactly what it did.

Hinata looked around but there wasn't much to see. They were in a cave, yes, but it seemed to be the only shelter for miles. If they exited the cave, they could walk around it easily. It seemed to of been placed there just for them. It did not look as if it belonged where it was, because surrounding it in all directions was sand as far as her Byakugan could see. There was nothing as all.

"There's nothing for miles besides this cave." She told them, deactivating her Byakugan.

"Nothing? As in...No nature, no animals, and no other humans?" Temari asked.

"Exactly that." Hinata replied.

Temari narrowed her eyes, "Hm..."

"We were brought here by somebody, whoever they are, must want us to do something." Sasori said after a moment of silence.

"Right you are, Sasori." A voice said. They looked around but found no source to it, "Find the Destination, and all will be revealed..." They listened to the masculine voice intently, and, though they weren't positive of it, it seemed like the voice was coming from the wind itself.

"Here is your advice...And your warning. You are used to doing what your mind tells you to do, but if you are to survive, you must follow the direction of your heart. Go to the North." The last phrase was said as a gust of wind blew into the cave.

"_'Follow the directions of your heart' _that's special! But knowing we have to go to the North is certainly helpful." Temari said.

"There is nothing to be done here. I suggest we leave now." Sasori said calmly.

"I guess, while the sun is out." Temari said. She walked to the entrance of the cave and looked around. She found what she was looking for, the sun. But she felt like it wouldn't be useful for them to figure out which way was North. It looked different than the sun she was used to seeing all day long. It was less bright and paler. Like a new-born sun would look like.

The other two joined her, "We should follow the sun." Sasori stated.

"But..." Temari started, but she had no logical reason to object to this besides that she felt it was the wrong thing to do.

Hinata looked at her with an understanding look in her eyes, "Yeah..." She said simply.

Sasori took the lead and started off towards where he supposed the North was. Temari and Hinata shared a worried glance before following after him. Temari stayed on guard, not quite trusting the path they were following. She had one hand on her fan, and the other over her eyes, trying to see where they were going without getting sand in her eyes.

She felt a pull at her heart. Something told her to protect.

'Protect...' It felt like it had been her mantra since the beginning of time. She was not sure why, but she pulled out her fan and jumped in front of Sasori. She kneeled in front of him with her fan in front of her. The same stance a lioness would have when protecting her cubs.

Something, none of them saw what it was, jumped out of the sand. Two of them, one on each side. They jumped up and attacked her fan. She dropped it. As the two creatures, they looked kind of like over-sized worms with over-sized teeth, destroyed her fan, she and the other two backed up. Hinata had grabbed a hold of Sasori's cloak when Temari had jumped in front of him. She to, had the word 'protect' in her heart. Sasori let himself be pulled back by her as he stared at the creatures. Knowing that he would not have been able to block himself from them.

They felt like nothing. They had no chakra, no heart, no _anything._ They were merely flesh put together to attack. Attack anybody who happened to take the wrong path.

Temari watched the two creatures disappear back into the sand, then stared at the remains of her fan. Sasori and Hinata said nothing as she continued to stare at her beloved fan. Sasori understood. He would be extremely upset if Hiruko were destroyed. At that moment, he was glad that all of his favorite puppets remained at the Akatsuki base.

Hinata stepped forward and lay a reassuring hand on Temari's shoulder. She heard the blonde murmur, "My fan..."

"Did your heart tell you to protect?" Hinata asked her.

Temari finally turned away from the area of attack, "Yeah. You too, I'm guessing?" Hinata nodded.

Sasori spoke, "Thank you." He spoke curtly. He did not enjoy being wrong, and his path had not been correct. He knew that the two did not want to go his way, but he had figured that it was the logical way to go.

Temari said nothing, but merely nodded her understanding.

"I'd like to know...What is it that made you two protect me?" He did not enjoy saying the word 'protect'. Let alone have it followed by 'me'. But the curiosity was nagging at him. He needed to know what lead them to do what they did.

"You know when you have a gut feeling? It was kind of like that, but stronger." Hinata explained.

"A 'gut feeling'?" He said curiously.

"You do know what that is...Right?" Temari asked. Sasori merely shook his head in a negative manner. He had never heard of that terminology.

"Hm...A gut feeling is when your heart tells you which way to go, and you just feel like it's the right way." Temari explained.

"Also...Sometimes your mind tells you which path is the logical one, but your heart tells you that it isn't the right way. Sometimes you're better off following your heart." Hinata added, using their situation as an example.

"I believe we may have just found out what the man meant by '_follow the directions of your heart'._" Sasori said.

"Sasori...How is it that you have never had a gut feeling? I mean, gut feelings are a part of life. You just...Have them!" Temari said, not quite believing him.

"Perhaps a while ago, I did. But I have always been a very logical person, and I have long since been disconnected to my feelings and my heart." Sasori explained.

"I suppose being evil does that to you." Temari said with a shrug. Hinata looked down at her feet, embarrassed by her friend's bluntness. She did not quite believe the Akatsuki members were evil, she considered them to simply be misguided. If they'd had someone to show them the right way, then perhaps they wouldn't have ended up where they did.

Sasori tilted his head a little, "I suppose." After a couple seconds of silence he added, "So where does this 'gut feeling' of yours say we should go?" He asked the blonde, who happened to share his hometown.

Hinata and Temari looked at each other, and at the same time, pointed in a direction more to the left of the path they were currently on. Sasori said, "Alright. Then that's where we will go."

"Alright..." Temari said. But as the two started to walk ahead, she couldn't stop herself from collecting the fallen pieces of her fan, the ones that hadn't blown away in the wind, and put them in her weapon pouch. She followed after the others.

They walked for quite some time. During which Hinata read to them passages from her little blue book. She found it in her weapon pouch. It seems that whoever sent them there had placed it there. Both Temari and Sasori found it very interesting. The Golden Empire was where the book took place, and they wondered if that was where they were headed. If they were headed anywhere. On that thought, Temari brought up the subject of their destination.

"I wonder what the 'Destination' thing is. It would be cool if it were that Golden Empire place. Its sounds like it would be quite a place to see, and the guards! Wonder what they actually would look like." Temari said enthusiastically.

"Are you really going to believe in a fairy tale?" Sasori said, despite what had happened, he could not push aside his logical reasoning.

"Believe?" Temari laughed, "You think this is about believing? No. It's about being reasonable. Look around, Sasori. Strong winds, endless sand, a random cave in the middle of nowhere. Giant worms with giant teeth! And look at the sun! Something out of the ordinary is going on here. What about the prophecy? We get it, and suddenly were whisked away to some random area! Which none of us recognize!" Temari ranted. She had obviously been thinking a lot about this.

"Those are reasonable, I will admit. But I still think there is a more logical explanation for all of this." Sasori said.

"Like?" Temari challenged.

"It could be a Genjutsu." Sasori said, going for the obvious.

"This powerful? And lasting this long?" Temari questioned.

Sasori looked at her, "You have never seen Itachi's Genjutsu then. That's some really powerful shit."

"Hm...But I still doubt it. Why would we end up here?"

"We could have been drugged when we got hit by the senbon." Sasori suggested, "It would explain the oddities of this."

"Perhaps. But drugs wear off, and this doesn't look like something drug-induced. Drugs make much more wacky shit...Another thing! The whole, ten shinobi getting hit with senbons without none of them knowing it, thing makes little sense!" Temari pointed out, smiling victoriously.

"That phrase made very little sense as well. As for the one who knocked us out...It was Satoshi. The man who gave us the prophecy in the first place."

"How do you know that?" Hinata asked quietly, startling both of them who'd both forgotten she was there.

"I was not as affected by the senbon as everyone else was." Sasori replied.

Suddenly, a wind much large than the one's they'd gotten used to blew around them. They hid their faces in their arms, shielding their eyes from the sand. As the wind died down slowly, they heard a loud growling sound in the distance, and the rustling of wings, but when they looked around, there was nothing there. Nothing that could of made that sound anyways. Because ahead of them, where there hadn't been anything before, was a large oval-shaped light.

Temari did not bother asking a question she had longed to ask, because she knew now that it would be answered. 'What happened to the others?'

They all knew, even Sasori felt it, that this was the 'Destination' they had been looking for. They walked through it calmly, not worrying about what would await them on the other side.

* * *

AN: Thanks much for reading!

-MewMew


	10. Earth Zone

_Chapter 10 - Earth Zone_

"Urgh..." Ino groaned, coming into consciousness. When she remembered what had happened, she kept her eyes closed. She felt the ground with her hand, and listened to the sounds in the air. Her hand came in contact with leaves and dirt, and she could only hear the sounds of the wind rustling through trees. Slowly she opened her eyes. She sat up and looked around. It took only a moment for her to realize she was in a forest. A very old forest, she deduced, after seeing the height of the trees.

After taking this in, she pulled out the senbon from her neck, and stood up. She started to walk into a random direction, trying to figure out if there was anybody else in the forest with her. It was after a couple minutes did she hear a loud sound, like an explosion. She looked in the direction it came from, and decided to go towards it. The explosion hadn't come from too far away, so she walked.

Nearing the area where the smoke was coming from, she hid behind a tree and looked into the clearing trying to find somebody. When the smoke was cleared, she saw one of the Akatsuki members, Deidara. Ino smiled seeing him, "Deidara!" She called out.

He turned towards her and grinned, "Ino! Hey!" He said and approached her.

She looked around the clearing, then turned her gaze onto him, "So...What was with the random explosion?" She asked him.

"I used it as a way to see if anybody else was here, yeah. The other members know it's my signature, and I figured if it were one of you guys, you'd still approach, yeah." He replied.

"It wasn't exactly inviting...No matter. Do you know what's going on?" Ino asked, though she doubted he knew any more than she did.

"I have no idea, yeah." Deidara said with a shrug and started walking.

"Where are you going?" Ino asked, following him.

"I have no idea, yeah." He repeated and she sighed, but continued to walk with him. They walked for a while, until they couldn't walk anymore. Well, until they couldn't walk forward anymore. They found themselves on the edge of a mountain. The base of the mountain was pitch black.

"Oh my..." Ino mumbled. The sight before them was not pretty. At first they thought it was just so far down, that it was just black. The more they looked on, the more they began to notice what it truly was at the base of the mountain.

It was black. Burnt black. It was supposed to be a forest at the base of the mountain, but it seemed as if the forest was massacred. It was burnt, and some of the trees were chopped, cut up, until it didn't resemble a forest anymore. But both Ino and Deidara guessed that there must have been much more to the forest before the attack on it happened. Not one bird sang its sweet melody.

"Who could have done this?" Ino said softly, looking at the carnage in sadness.

Deidara shook his head, "I don't know, yeah." He himself liked destroying things, exploding them, but even he knew that this was just cruelty. He never understood the point of attacking something that couldn't defend itself. And that must have been the point.

"There can't possibly be a reason for this."

"Maybe the person who did this was looking for something, yeah." Deidara suggested.

"But why would the person feel the need to destroy the place?" Ino couldn't understand how anyone could do such a thing.

Deidara shrugged his shoulders, "Who knows? Sometimes there are just cruel people, yeah."

"Cruelty is not even close to what this is." A voice said sadly. Ino and Deidara looked at each other. When they realized that neither of them said this, they looked around.

"Who's there, yeah?" Deidara asked.

"This was done by a monster." Came the voice again, but this time, it came from behind them. They both turned around quickly to see Satoshi.

"It's you!" Ino said surprised, her expression went from surprise, to sadness when she took in what Satoshi said. "A monster?" She asked.

Satoshi walked to the edge of the mountain and looked on into the darkness, "Yes...But that will be explained to you later when you reach the Destination." He said and turned away from the carnage.

Deidara looked at him confused, "And that is, yeah...?"

"You'll see. Now I've come here to give you a hint, something to guide you on your search for the Destination." Satoshi said clapping his hands, bringing himself back to attention. He had something to do, and he would not get distracted again, "_The only power that one truly has to work for, is power over oneself_." Satoshi spoke with his eyes closed.

"And that means, yeah...?" Deidara asked.

Satoshi opened his eyes and smiled, "Now I can't tell you that! It would ruin the point of putting you here in the first place." Satoshi replied.

Ino looked at him, "So there actually is a point to this?"

Satoshi laughed, "Of course! Now, I'll be seeing you two later. And you'll see your other teammates later as well."

"Are they okay?" Ino asked hurriedly. She saw Satoshi nod before disappearing. Ino and Deidara stared at the spot where he had just vanished, then turned their gaze onto each other.

"So..." Ino said awkwardly.

Deidara just looked at her, a blank look on his face, "Well..." Suddenly, he turned away and started walking back into the forest, "We won't get anywhere standing around doing nothing. Might as well take a look around, yeah." He said. Ino followed behind with a shrug. He was right, and she knew it.

"What are we looking for?" Ino asked after a couple minutes of aimless wandering.

"Something called 'the Destination'. What that is, I don't know, yeah. I have a feeling we'll know what it is when we see it though, yeah." Deidara replied.

"Ah, how lovely." Ino said sarcastically, "Looking for something in the middle of nowhere... Lovely." She repeated.

"Yeah, kind of random isn't it?" Deidara said laughing.

Ino joined in on the laughter, "You think?"

The two walked on, talking amiably together. They both kind of forgot what they were looking for after a while. A couple times it would be brought up when trying to decide which way to go, but other than that, they made no real effort to figure out the puzzle that lay before them. They allowed the beauty of the remaining forest to fog their path. The temptation that came with beauty, and friends, was far greater than most realized.

Thus why when they heard the most melodic voice speak to them, they could only follow its command, "_Come to me... I will show you to the Destination that you seek..." _The voice repeated the same thing over and over. Ino and Deidara stopped speaking the moment they heard the voice, neither looked at each other as they walked forward towards the voice.

Suddenly, Ino tripped while walking. She regained her balance quickly, but the trance on her was broken. She stood still, listening to the voice intently, and ignored the words. The voice had a melodic quality to it, but it didn't sound genuine. It had a sinister tone to it. When she discovered this, she allowed the words to sink in. It didn't seem right to her. If they were meant to be lead somewhere, Ino believed that Satoshi would have done so. Following the voice now seemed like a bad idea. When she came back to reality, she realized that Deidara had yet to notice that the voice was off.

He was nearly completely hidden amongst the trees when Ino went after him. Upon reaching him, she grabbed a hold of his sleeve and pulled him backwards. The sudden jerk seemed to pull him out of the trance, and he looked at her with a bewildered look on his face, the voice was still distinguishable in the background.

"What, yeah?" Deidara asked confused.

"I don't like this." Ino made a gesture with her hand that meant she didn't like the situation.

"Why not, yeah? It's been the only sign of something else living since we got here, yeah." Deidara replied.

"Listen to the voice. I just don't trust it." She whispered looking around warily, "We don't know who it is, and we haven't even seen this person."

"I suppose, yeah..." Deidara seemed hesitant, but listened as she had asked. After a moment, he looked at her and nodded, "Okay, I think I know what you're talking about. Let's get away from here, yeah."

"Good." Ino said satisfied, the voice was starting to freak her out a bit. Hearing it, and not seeing it was unnerving her. She spoke loudly, "Thanks, but we're going to find it ourselves." She pulled on Deidara's sleeve, and led him away from the path they were on. Just as they were leaving the area, they heard the voice turn into a growling sound. It seemed displeased, but it stopped and disappeared after a moment.

Silence hung in the air for a while, until Deidara decided to break it, "I think..." He said hesitantly. He was going to let it go, but with Ino's encouraging smile, he continued on, "I think I recognized the voice, yeah."

"You do?" Ino sounded surprised, "Can you put a face to the voice? Or better yet, a name?" She prodded.

Deidara shook his head, "No...I have no idea how I can recognize it at all. It just seems like a distant memory, yeah." He looked thoughtful. Ino was disappointed by the lack of information he could provide, but knew that perhaps the answer would be given to them later when they reached the Destination.

"Where do you think we should go, yeah?" Deidara asked after a moment of silence.

"Hm..." Ino looked around, thinking, "We can always try going up." She said pointing upwards. "If we climb to the tree tops we'll be able to see much more of the terrain than we are by walking around."

"Makes sense, yeah." Deidara agreed and the two put chakra into their feet, and started to climb up the trees. The trees height was greater than either of them had thought. The branches that would normally have blocked out the sun, seemed to of only been blocking more branches. It felt like forever before the two of them reached the top. The two stood on the trees' highest points and looked around.

"Oh my God..." Ino gasped.

"What the Hell has been happening around here, yeah?" Deidara said with anger in his voice.

He was angry towards the person who could have done the terrible things that they saw before their eyes'. The destruction of the forest had not stopped at the area they were at earlier. The destruction had continued its path all around them. It looked to them like they stood on an island and instead of waters around them, there was the destruction. The only greenery was the 'island' they were currently on. The island was rather small, they guessed that they had probably been going in circles, and that is why they had only seen the one patch of carnage in all the time that they had been there.

"We've got to figure out what's been going on here, yeah...Let's find the Destination quickly. Satoshi said we would get our answers there, yeah." Deidara spoke after a moment. He looked over towards Ino and noticed her mortified expression. "Ino? Are you alright, yeah?" He asked anxiously.

She shook her head, bringing herself away from her thoughts, "Yeah, it's just...I've never seen something so sad. What if there were people here? And what about the poor animals?"

Deidara was at a loss for words, "I...I don't know, yeah..." He continued to look around, hoping that something would catch his eye. Suddenly his eyes landed upon a bright, white light not to far from where they were. "Look!" Deidara pointed it out to Ino. Her face brightened when she saw the white light.

"That has to be what we're looking for!" Ino exclaimed, smiling.

He nodded, "Alright, let's go, yeah." Before she could reply, he jumped to the next tree over and looked at her over his shoulder, "We'll go from up here, just to make sure we don't lose sight of it, yeah."

"Sounds like a plan." She agreed and the two went off towards the light.

A couple minutes later, they jumped out of the tree and landed right in front of where they had spotted the light. The light seemed to have been coming from a hole. Ino approached it and looked down and instead of the usual darkness, there was the bright light shining from it. "I think we just have to jump down." She said. She was now on her knees staring down into the hole.

"Ladies first, yeah?" Deidara said with a grin. Ino glared at him, but brought her legs out from under her and put them over the edge of the hole. With one last glance at Deidara, she jumped down. He looked into the hole and called her name. When he got no answer he guessed that it must be safe, and jumped into the hole. White light flashed before his eyes, then darkness.

* * *

AN: Thanks much for reading!

-MewMew


	11. Guards and Riddles

_Chapter 11 - Guards and Riddles_

The four different groups arrived at about the same time. Five minutes differed from the first to the last groups' arrival. They all stood on white floors, that none of them were quite sure what it was made of. In front of them, there was a large, golden gate with four locks on it, and on either side of the gate were white walls that seemed to stretch on forever. On these walls, there were four pedestals, two on either side of the gate. They dared not approach it until all of them arrived.

The fourth, and last, flash of light appeared, bringing with it Ino and Deidara. Sakura walked over to her friend and immediately asked her how she was.

Ino smiled brightly, "We're just fine. Is everyone else alright?" Sakura nodded, and Ino noticed that everyone else had already arrived. "How long has everybody been here?"

"Not long, five minutes maybe?" Sakura said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"So...I'm guessing we have to go through those, yeah?" Deidara said, pointing to the gates.

"Most likely. We were just waiting for your arrival." Sasori said, walking over to his partner. "How was your..." Sasori was at a loss for a proper word for what they had gone through, but Deidara understood what he was talking about.

"It was pretty awful, actually. The place we were at was in some kind of ruin. But like, not completely, yeah. It's like we showed up halfway through the destruction of the place, yeah." Deidara spoke with hesitance, not quite sure how to explain it. Sasori could only comprehend half of what the blonde was saying.

Ino decided to add to it, seeing the confused looks, "Someone was there, and we guess he was destroying the place. We were in a forest, and half of it was burnt down."

"Why would he do that?" Temari asked.

Ino shrugged her shoulders, "That's what I said, but the Satoshi guy said he was some kind of monster. Oh yeah! Did you guys talk to him to?"

"Yeah," Hidan answered, "But he wasn't much fucking help."

"I feel like I did something to help." They heard a voice say, and this time, they all knew immediately who it was. Satoshi. They looked over towards the gate, and he was sitting on the gate, looking down at them with a care-free smile on his face. "It's nice to see you've all made it safe and sound! Now, it's time for all of you to cross this gate. Be respectful and listen carefully." He spoke the last part seriously, and disappeared right before their eyes.

"Hm...Does that mean we'll get to see those guards?" Temari asked to no one in particular.

Hinata taped her shoulder and pointed upwards. There in the sky, was a beam of light. This beam shot downwards, and landed straight onto the first pedestal to the left of the gate. All eyes remained fixated onto the light, as it slowly disappeared. There in its place, was a beautiful man. He had no shirt on, and wore white pants that reached his knees. His black hair reached his shoulder blades. His eyes were piercingly light blue, but what stood out, were the wings that stood straight out from his back.

"Hello, I am Boreas, guardian of the Northern winds." He said in a melodic voice, and nobody spoke, much too transfixed by his beauty. "You have reached the gates to the 71st world, also known as the home to the Golden Empire. Before you can enter, my brother and sisters will ask you four riddles, if you guess all of them correctly, you may pass. If you guess incorrectly, you will be knocked down."

"Knocked down?" Kisame said curiously, not liking the sound of it.

"Brought down to the 70th world. It is a world of deep solitude, to work on your understanding of yourself, and all things around you. Which in that world, really isn't much." He replied, "Now, are you ready to hear the first riddle?" He asked.

They looked amongst themselves and Hidan answered, "Don't really have much choice, now do we?"

"No." Was the cool reply, "The first riddle is this '_What goes on four legs in the morning, on 2 legs at noon, and on 3 legs in the evening?'_" He stood erect, and looked straight ahead, waiting for an answer.

"Fuck I hate riddles..."

"The answer is man." Itachi replied before any of them had time to even think about it.

"Are you sure?" Sasori asked him, but he already knew it was too late to take it back, because Boreas came out of his perfect pose and looked at Itachi.

"Correct, now how, may I ask, did you know the answer so quickly?" He asked.

"It's a riddle well known in mythology. It's the riddle of the Sphinx." Itachi replied monotone.

"But what does it mean?" Ino asked, still not understanding the meaning behind the riddle, even with the answer given to her.

"A man crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on his two legs as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age. Morning, noon, and evening are metaphors for the times in a man's life." Boreas replied to her, "I will remove the first lock." He flicked his hand, and the first lock on the gate came off, fell to the ground, and disappeared.

A second beam of light appeared in the sky, and all of them looked up to it, even Boreas. "Welcome, my sister." He said as the beam landed on the first pedestal to the right of the gate.

The woman who stood there had on a white, flowing dress, and her golden locks were tied up in a French braid. Her green eyes were just as piercing as her brother's, but friendlier. And she also had wings jutting out from her back, "Hello everyone, I am Eura, guardian of the Eastern winds. I am here to give you your 2nd riddle. I will also add to my brother's explanation that you are allowed one error, and that the 70th world really isn't that bad." She smiled.

"If you don't mind going insane." Boreas mumbled to himself, and Eura shot him a dark look. She quickly looked back at the shinobi and smiled once more.

"Here is your 2nd riddle, it is '_There are 2 sisters, one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are these 2 sisters?'_" She removed her smile, and looked on straight ahead, as did Boreas.

"How would a sister give birth to her sister?" Kisame asked to no one in particular.

"It's obviously a metaphor for something else," Sakura replied with a roll of her eyes, "But what...If she gives birth to the other and she...It makes it an endless cycle."

"But what cycle, could be compared to two sisters?" Tenten asked.

"It could be numerous things..." Sakura said and suddenly something caught her eye. She looked at the sun, and the answer came to her, "The answer is day and night!" She exclaimed, "The sun leaves, giving place to the moon, and the moon then leaves, giving her place to the sun! It's a cycle that'll go on forever."

Eura and Boreas unfroze, and the former smiled at her, "You are correct! Day and night, the sun and the moon, are two sisters that will never cease to live. You have unlocked the second lock." She said, and she flicked her wrist. The 2nd lock fell and disappeared like the first one.

This time, they weren't surprised to see another light come from the sky. Eura and Boreas watched their brother land on the pillar next to Boreas. He was just as beautiful as the first two. He wore white pants like Boreas, and a white short-sleeved shirt. His dark brown hair reached just below his ears, and his eyes were a dark brown. His wings looked a little smaller than Eura's and Boreas's. But by his boyish looks, they guessed it was because he had yet to grow into fuller sized wings.

"Hi, I'm Notus, guardian of the Southern winds. I will be telling you the third riddle. I suggest you think it through before giving me an answer." He told them, he had a childish grin on his face. "Here is the riddle, _'It cannot be seen, it cannot be felt. It cannot be heard, it cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars, under hills, and empty holes it fills. It comes first, and follows after. It ends life, and kills laughter. What is it?'_" The three went into their statuesque positions and the shinobi shared a look.

They all remained deep in thought, some proposing a couple failed ideas, such as air, evil, space, but there was always one requirement it didn't fill.

"How about time?" Temari proposed.

"Yes, but how would time kill laughter?" Sakura said.

"It cannot." Sasori finalized, so the idea was thrown aside. He started to try to connect the words they'd used, but it was difficult. Most of them had filled the 'cannot be seen, felt, heard, smelt' requirements, but the rest they could not. The only one that could fill all of them except those, was evil. Evil could be seen and heard. He tried to find words that connected with evil.

He kept coming back to the same words, always just missing the answer. He had a few good ones, like thoughts, death, life, light, but they did not fulfill all requirements, yet again. Most of them just didn't correspond with 'kills laughter'. Not many things could do that. Evil, and death were the two that fit. But they did not work with the rest. He kept turning around those two words, finding the one that would put the entire thing together. Something to correspond with evil and death.

The others had similar thoughts to his own. It was only when Tenten made a suggestion did it hit him, "How about light?" She proposed aloud.

"Light cannot kill laughter, but darkness can…" He said, and started filling in the blanks, "Darkness cannot be seen, felt, heard or smelt. Darkness lies behind stars and under hills. Empty holes it fills. Darkness comes first and follows after. Darkness ends life, and kills laughter."

"It works! Finally!" Hidan exclaimed, tired of working in circles for the riddle.

They waited for the three guardians to move, but none of them did. Sasori then said, "The answer is darkness," And they proceded to unfreeze.

Notus smiled at them, "Well done! Now the third lock has been opened," He said and flicked his wrist. The third lock fell and disappeared, now there was only one left on the gate.

The fourth and last beam of light fell from the sky, landing on the pedestal to the right of Eura. The last guardian was a tall woman with bright, red hair flowing loosely around her. She wore a short, white dress and her eyes were a dark blue, she looked as serious as Boreas. She had wings like her brothers and sister coming out of her back.

"I am Zaphyra, guardian of the Western winds. You have managed to reach the last lock, it's impressive that you have managed to get so far on your first attempt. Here is your final riddle, _'It is greater than God, more evil than the Devil. The poor have it, and the rich need it. And if you eat it, you'll die. What is it?'_" She said her riddle, and at the same time all four of the guardians went into their erect poses.

It was beautiful seeing all four of them on their rightful pedestals, with the golden gates standing large in the middle. It was a perfect picture, that any artist could only dream of ever seeing. It took the shinobi a moment to tear their eyes away from the sight, but once they did, they became serious again, trying to figure out the answer to the riddle.

"What could possibly be greater than God?" Ino asked aloud, "And how could that same thing be more evil than the Devil?"

"Also, what do the poor have that the rich would need? This riddle is just full of contradicting things!" Deidara said.

Suddenly, Kisame laughed, and all attention was drawn to him, "I think I actually know this one." He was surprised to realize that he could possibly know the answer to a riddle. He'd always been terrible with them. When they were all listening, he explained, "My teacher used to always say to us that nothing was greater than God, so we shouldn't act like we are because it could lead to our downfall. Nothing could definitely fulfill all the requirements."

"Nothing is greater than God, nothing is more evil than the Devil. The poor have nothing, and the rich need nothing. And if you eat nothing, you'll die! It makes perfect sense!" Tenten exclaimed, putting it all together.

"The answer is nothing." Kisame said aloud, so the guardians could unfreeze and tell him if it was correct or not.

They did, and Zaphyra grinned for a brief moment, then it disappeared as fast as it came, "You have succeeded in answering all four of the riddles without a single error. It's the first time in a while that that has happened. I suppose I should never have doubted Izuna-sama, you may just be the ones from the prophecy." She said.

"They better be, we're running out of time." Eura said.

"We can play no more games, Zaphyra, open the last lock to let them through. We have no time to waste." Boreas said sternly.

"Beyond this gate is the one who will be able to provide you with all the answers you seek," Zaphyra flicked her wrist and the final lock on the gate hit the floor, and disappeared like the others.

Slowly the door started to open, there was no sound in the air as it did so. Once the golden gates were wide open, Notus spoke, "You may enter, the Golden Empire awaits." With that said, Notus, Boreas, Eura, and Zaphyra returned to their statuesque states.

"I guess we better just do what they ask us to do." Sakura suggested. The others agreed, the thought of answers too tempting to refuse. All ten of them slowly made their way to the gates, once through, the gates slamed shut behind them. Some whirled around, noticing that the four guardians seemed to have disappeared, and the ones who didn't, were the ones transfixed by the view in front of them.

Those transfixed were the ones who had seen the pages in the little blue book that was in Hinata's weapon pouch. For the picture drawn on the page she had read aloud to them all earlier, seemed to have come alive right before their eyes. The steps the man in the book walked were the same pearly white, and tall pillars with golden threads around them were on either side of the steps. They continued on when the steps stopped and became solid ground. Further down, there were two solid doors, inside, they all knew, was the Golden Empire.

They made their way up the steps carefully, "It's exactly the same as the book." Temari said, looking in awe at everything.

"So it seems." Sasori agreed grudgingly, and Temari grinned knowingly at him. Just earlier he had been so hesitant to believe, and now, the proof was before his eyes. Hinata smiled to herself, she had somehow walked into her favorite book. Unknown to her though, Itachi was having the same thoughts. He had thorougly enjoyed the book, and for his entire youth had hoped it would be true. And here it was.

"This place is amazing, yeah!" Deidara exclaimed, and turned to Hidan with a cocky grin, "Let's see your Jashin-sama beat this, yeah!" He laughed, but before Hidan could retaliate with a defense, a loud, booming voice spoke.

"Welcome to the Golden Empire, where those whose life has ended come. You may enter, and from this point on, there will be no turning back." It said.

"We could have turned back?" Kisame asked.

"There was nowhere else we could of gone, so I don't think so," Tenten replied.

They approached the door separating them, hopefully, from some answers. Ino stepped forward and made to open the door, but it flew open before she could touch it. "Woah..." She said in amazement.

The first thing they could see upon entering was a large fountain. The room was circular, and there were doors lining the walls, and a staircase leading upwards. On the second floor, there were more doors, and another staircase. They looked up, and counted 10 floors. What they were all used for they could only guess. Behind the fountain was a larger door than the rest.

"I think we should go to those big doors, yeah." Deidara said, pointing towards behind the fountain.

"Yes, that is where you all will be meeting Izuna-sama." They heard Satoshi said. They were now used to his sudden apparitions. He appeared on the edge of the fountains, and jumped down. "Follow me." He instructed and made his way to the doors.

"So, we're finally getting answers?" Tenten asked.

He looked over his shoulder and smiled at her, "Yes, you will finally be getting your well-deserved answers." He replied.

Nobody spoke a word, because the only things they wished to say were questions. They all had so many to ask, they were all enormously confused. Mostly, they all just wished to return home, to normality. But they had a feeling it would be a little longer before that would be happening. Satoshi turned the doorknob and opened the door. The room was nicely decorated, and it looked like a meeting room. A large table took up most of the room, and only one person was already in the room.

Izuna sat at the edge of the table furthest from the door. He looked towards them and smiled, "It's nice to finally be able to welcome you to the Golden Empire."

* * *

AN: (The guard's names don't need to be remembered, they aren't re-appearing.) Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

-MewMew


	12. The Guardian's Explanation

_Chapter 12 - The Guardian's Explanation_

They all sat down at the long table. They were surprised to find that Satoshi would be remaining with them. They'd grown accustomed to only seeing him for brief periods of time. But despite their surprise, their attention remained focused on Izuna. They knew that this was the man that Satoshi and the four guards had mentioned, but they didn't see why they spoke of him, and to him, with such respect. He had the same soothing air around him like the other people they'd met so far, but he looked so..._human._

They had met a man with powers they had only begun to see, and Angel's that gave off such God-like energy, they had expected a little more. But they all knew not to judge somebody solely based on their looks, because looks could easily be deceiving. They begun to wonder exactly who Izuna was. Hidan wasn't the kind to respect others, even those who were obviously on another level than himself. He asked the question they were all asking themselves aloud.

"Who the hell are you?" Sasori who was seated next to Hidan, gave him a kick in the shins and he hissed out an 'ow!'

Izuna laughed, "My name is Izuna, and I am the guardian of the Golden Empire. As the guardian, I make sure that everything is balanced in the worlds."

"What's with the worlds?" Temari asked. It was the second time they were mentioned, and none of them knew what it was they were actually talking about.

"The Universe as a whole, is divided into 72 different worlds. Each world is parallel to one another, thus never interacting with each other. This, as you know, is the 71st world. Your world, which by chance was also mine, is the 46th world." Izuna replied.

"What's your last name?" They were surprised by Itachi's sudden question. It seemed quite off-topic to them all. Except for Izuna, who knew exactly what Itachi was suspicious about.

"Uchiha. My brother just happens to be the Leader of your organization, and he was so kind as to bring all of you together for me, making bringing you here that much easier. Of course I had to give him a little push in the right direction, but you're here at last, and we can finally get somewhere."

"Wait...Your brother?" Sasori asked.

Izuna's lips formed something between a smirk and a grimace, "Yes...Enough about my brother. Let me begin explaining to you why you're here. Let's see...Where to begin?" He sat back in his chair and thought for a moment. He crossed his arms and started speaking soon thereafter, "This all started millions of years ago, back when life had only begun to form itself on Earth. Are any of you familiar with the story of Lucifer?"

Only Tenten rose her hand a little, "He's the fallen archangel right?"

Izuna looked around the table, "Yes. Don't any of you recognize the name?" He asked in disbelief. He was surprised that they knew so little about him.

"It rings a bell." Kisame said with a shrug.

"Alright then..." He sighed, "Like Tenten said, Lucifer was an archangel. He was well-known for being powerful and sadistic. He was unforgiving and cruel, even to the innocent, and his strive to become even more powerful than those above him are what led to his banishment from Heaven. But the other archangel's knew that Lucifer would not follow the rules of his banishment if he was not given something to occupy his time. It was a mutual agreement that somebody with such a dark side to him, should be given the task of ruling Hell."

"But if they knew he was all evil and stuff, why wouldn't they just kill him, yeah?" Deidara asked.

"It's impossible to kill an angel." Izuna stated simply, "Now, after Lucifer's banishment, the other archangel's believed that ruling Hell would be enough to satisfy his hunger for power, but the ten Master Dragon's thought otherwise. They knew that when somebody gets a taste of ultimate power, like Lucifer had in Heaven, they would stop at nothing to regain it. They made a mutual decision that they would send their strength down into ten different family branches, and that this strength would be awakened if ever Lucifer were to ignore the rules of his banishment, and leave Hell. As predicted, he broke the rules, and that's why you're all here."

"But why the fuck would they do that?" Hidan asked, refering to the ten Master Dragon's.

"As I said earlier, it's impossible to kill an angel. The only possible way of getting rid of Lucifer is to seal him away in the Shiringu Tera, a temple that resides in your world. But this ritual can only be done by humans. The Master Dragon's knew this, and they also knew that no ordinary human has the strength to do the ritual until the end. So, to protect the world, they gave you their strength in return for their immortality. Only three of the Master Dragon's remain now, the other seven having been destroyed by Lucifer."

"How do you even know we're the right people?" Kisame asked. He'd never felt any strength besides his own.

"I can see much more than you might think, including the Master Dragon's strength that resides in all of you." Izuna replied.

"Where is Lucifer now?" Ino asked.

"He's in world 13, which is the world you and Deidara were in earlier. He's the one who spoke to you in the woods, and I'm glad you managed to break out of his trance."

Both Ino and Deidara now understood what Satoshi had meant when he had called the voice a monster. An angel who's strength was once compared to God, had been right there with them. The two could only guess at how cruel he had been before, but the state of the forest they had been in mere moments earlier, gave them a horrendous idea of what he was capable of.

"Does he know that we're supposed to seal him away?" Ino asked, and Izuna nodded.

"But then why didn't he attack us, yeah?" Deidara asked. Two of the people who were supposed to get rid of him had been right there, and the most Lucifer had tried to do was hypnotize them. If he was as powerful as Izuna made him out to be, they wondered why he wouldn't want to get rid of his only threat.

"Lucifer found out that somebody was supposed to seal him away a century ago, when he managed to destroy the eldest Master Dragon, Abraxas. Everyone knew of the Master Dragon's immortality, and he wondered where that strength had gone. Their strength had a recognizable, and quite traceable, aura to it. Lucifer managed to trace it back to your world, and once there, found Deidara."

"What?" The mentioned blonde exclaimed, eyes wide.

"Yes...It's the reason you recognized his voice. He talked to you in your dreams for a while, tried to figure out why you had some of their strength. Why would a human be given such a tremendous amount of power? You could never use it to the full extent that he'd be able to. When he realized that you had absolutely no idea of the power inside of you, he attempted to take it from you. But when he was unable to do so, he tried to kill you. If he couldn't have the strength, then nobody could. That's when he understood just why you were given the strength. He couldn't touch you. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't kill you. He wouldn't even be able to harm any of you.

The Master Dragon's strength has given you the ultimate defence against the greatest evil. All of you instantly became his enemies. But he became that much more furious. He started doing things a little more carelessly, but ten times more sadistically. He's doing everything faster now, and has gotten much further than we wanted him to get." Izuna explained.

"But what exactly is he doing?" Tenten asked.

"Lucifer became bored with Hell, and decided to go into the world just above his. This was the world that Temari, Sasori, and Hinata were in. What the three of you saw, is what Lucifer turned that world into, it's nothing like the world it once was. He killed all the life, destroyed the world, and recreated it to his liking. He did the same with the world Tenten and Kisame were in. Itachi, Hidan, and Sakura, the world you were in hasn't been recreated yet. And at the moment, he's in the process of destroying world 13. It's unfortunate to say, but the archangel's have very little power over Lucifer, and with most of the Master Dragon's gone, there is not much to be done. We must wait until the right moment to do the ritual."

"How do you know all this shit?" Hidan asked.

"Like I said, I can see more than you think. I saw Lucifer do most of this, and the rest was told to me by either Satoshi, or the three Master Dragon's."

"When do we have to do the ritual?" Sasori asked.

"The ritual has to be done during the next eclipse, which will be taking place in two weeks. The eclipse is going to last 70 seconds, and the ritual should take no more than 55 seconds. The ritual must be done within those 70 seconds, or else there won't be another chance to do it for another 15 months. I can say without any doubt, that we do not have 15 months to spare." Nanashi replied.

"Basically, don't screw up." Satoshi spoke up. His usual joyful expression turned into a serious one.

The room was quiet after this very simple, yet very poweful, statement. The shinobi's thoughts circled around it, realizing at that moment, just how much the world actually depended on them. On their ability to perform this ritual without fault. One mistake, one error, one minor miscalculation, and the world was doomed.

"Damn." Hidan summed up all their thoughts.

* * *

AN: I apologize if this chapter isn't very good. It's choppy and the ideas are pretty much thrown together. I know, but I tried re-writting it numerous times but I just couldn't get it right. Sorry!

Explanations: An archangel is like a leader angel. Lucifer is often refered to as Satan, which is where I took this whole idea from. Shiringu Tera is simply 'Sealing Temple' translated from Japanese. The 72 worlds thing is my 'breaking down the fourth wall' kind of. Hell is world 1, and Heaven world 72. I made our world, world 35 (Though you don't need to know that, just a random fact.) Izuna is Madara's little brother by the way! In case you didn't know yet.

Thanks so much for reading!  
-MewMew


	13. Guilty Conscience

_Chapter 13 - Guilty Conscience_

"The Master Dragon's powers have been burried so far deep that we'll have to force it to come out. After so many years, I'm surprised it's still there at all." Izuna guided them through the Empire. He gave them little explanations about the uses of the other rooms.

"How are you going to force them out?" Temari asked, not really liking the sound of it.

"To force out the power, you'll have to combat your greatest guilt. Guilt is burried so far deep into the heart, along with the powers. By forcing out the guilt, we will be forcing out the powers. There's a special room here in the Golden Empire that was made specially for this. That room is going to pull out your guilt, and if you succeed in overpowering it, you will gain control of the powers." He explained.

"Right..." Kisame trailled off.

"You'll understand when you enter the room." Was all Izuna added.

They went up four flights of stairs and stopped in front of a white door with red trimmings. Izuna entered the room followed by the shinobi and Satoshi. The door closed behind them. The room was completely bare except on the opposing wall stood a door. This door was bright red and from the cracks around it came a bloody-red light. The light gave the room a rather eerie glow. The red light covered half the room, the other half being covered by the white light which seemed to be protruding from the door behind them. All of them felt something stir inside of them, but couldn't really figure out what it was. But whatever it was, they knew it wasn't good.

"Beyond that door is the room that will help you unlock the Master Dragon's powers. Each of you will enter individually and from there you'll have to do the best you can. A small warning, every negative feeling you have is going to multiplied tenfold. Ino, you'll be going first." He directed her towards the door.

She was extremely hesitant to go into the room, but knew she had no other choice. She shot a glance to her friends over her shouler, and saw their worried expressions. That helped her confidence very little. She opened the door and was enveloped in a red light, the last thing she heard before closing the door behind her lowered her confidence even more.

"May the Lord be with you."

Just as the door clicked behind her, the red light seemed to lessen enough for her to see clearly. She turned around and noticed that the door had disappeared. She felt anxiety creep over her, and she whimpered lightly. She didn't want to be left there in the room alone. Especially not knowing what was waiting for her. She looked around and could see nothing besides redness. Suddenly she felt the floor disappear from beneath her feet.

She was falling. She tried to yell but no sound escaped her lips. She reached out her hands, trying to grasp onto something. But she drew back, realizing that there was only light around her. Nothing solid that she could hold onto. Normally she loved light. It gave life to her beloved flowers. But at the moment she cursed it for being the only thing around. She circled her arms around herself and closed her eyes tight.

She regretted doing that as soon as she did it. For when her eyes closed, her ears became more sensitive to the sound around her. When she had yelled and no sound came out, she thought she had perhaps gone deaf. But now she knew otherwise. Her voice was gone. Not her hearing. Because she could hear everything perfectly. It took a moment for her to distinguish what all the sounds were. When she was able to make out the words, she cringed.

_"A coward she is, a liar without fail, a promise breaker...She is of no good quality."_

She wished to unhear the words. She tried to cover her ears, but it was futile. The voices grew louder.

_"She can't possibly be a kunoichi. She lives off cowardice, lies, and failed promises. She won't ever amount to anything."_

She didn't recognize the voice but it hurt none the less. Because it was all true. She knew she was a coward. She knew she lied. And she can't remember a promise that she has ever kept.

_"You can't even be honest with your friends! Not even your best friend!" _

She recognized this one. Hearing her best friend say that, she burst out into tears. She kept her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut even tighter. She felt the wind blowing in her hair, and wondered how far down she was falling. She wanted the bottom to arrive soon. She didn't want to hear these things anymore. The tears were streaming down her cheeks restlessly. She tried to apologize to the voices, but again she found herself unable to speak. '_I'm sorry, Sakura.' _She thought. She curled inward, wanting to disappear like everything else in the room had.

She could hear her other friends voices mix in with Sakura's.

_"Such a failure..."_

That's when it hit her. She wasn't a failure. She had been a coward, a liar, and a promise breaker. But those things were in the past. She wasn't those things anymore. She changed. She had tried so hard to be a better person, and she was. That's when she came back to herself. Those weren't her friends voices. They would never say such things to her. Nobody got away with calling her a failure. Nobody.

She felt the anger stir inside of her. Her eyes snapped open and she removed her hands from her ears. She felt her heartbeat accelerate from the adrenaline. She knew right then that her voice was back. And she had no qualms about using it.

"Now you listen here! I don't know who you are, but you cannot call me a failure! Understand?" She yelled out angrily. She could hear mumbling and small laughter. "I was a coward, yes. I was a liar, sure. I broke a lot of promises, okay. But those are in the past. I'm not that naive little girl anymore. If I hurt people in the past because of these things, I'm sorry. But I know for a fact that I won't do them again! And you can count on that!"

The voices around her slowly quieted down. She had no idea what pushed her to try, but she reached out a hand. She knew there was nothing solid, but something deep inside her told her to trust the light. She tried to grab the light, and was surprised when her hand could actually hold onto it. It was smooth to the touch, and kind of fluffy. It felt like what she always figured a cloud would feel like. The second her hand latched onto the light, the voices disappeared.

She closed her eyes for a moment to catch her breath and to make sure there was nothing else to hear. She smiled to herself. It felt good to yell at her guilt. She'd always felt guilty about the person she had been but now she knew that what was important was the person she was right then and there. She opened her eyes feeling light-hearted. Her eyes widened when she saw that the red light had suddenly turned white. There was a glow around her. She knew immediately that this was the power.

She felt like she could do anything. She let go of the light and she didn't fall. Her feet were touching solid ground. Ino turned around to find herself facing the door. She wiped her cheeks, but found there was no wet trail. Her tears seemed to have just disappeared because her eyes weren't even burning, like they should have been after crying. She exited the room feeling like a brand new person. And she loved the feeling.

When she stepped out of the room she found all her friends waiting out there for her. She smiled upon seeing them, and they smiled back. These were definitely her real friends.

"Are you alright?" Sakura felt the need to ask, though Ino's smile spoke for itself.

"Better than ever." And she wasn't lying.

"I see you fought off the guilt very well. The power shines brightly now." Izuna spoke.

Ino took a quick look at the room and saw that it was red again. She guessed that it was being inside the room was what caused the white light, and by leaving the room she took the light with her.

"Hidan, you're next."

And they all went into the red room, exiting a white room. Not all of them exited in the same cheerful fashion that Ino did, but they all felt the same. Their hearts felt like they weighed nothing. A light, happy feeling resided within them. A sense of accomplishment. The feeling of having the world come off their shoulders. All in all, a good feeling.

Hidan felt the guilt of losing hope in his mother. Before hearing the name of The Fire, he hadn't thought about her in years. After she passed away, he lost hope that the stories she had told him were true. Now that the proof was right in front of him, he felt guilty for doubting her. His mother had once been his source of hope. His beacon of light. And after losing her, that light disappeared. He transfered the belief he had in his mother, into the belief he had for his religion. For his God, Jashin. He saw her. He saw her disappointed face. Then remembered that his mother was never disappointed in him.

She always believed in him. Even when things were difficult. And with that in mind, he conquered his guilt, and vowed to have hope in his mother no matter what.

Temari's past hatred for her youngest brother is what haunted her memories. She loved him now, but the way she had once hated him made her feel guilty. He hadn't deserved to be hated. Especially not by his own sibling. If Gaara should have relied on anybody, it should have been her. But he didn't. Because he couldn't. She was afraid of him. And she hated him for that. She was angry at him now for trying to get her to wed the Raikage, but soon realized that she shouldn't be. He was trying to do what was best for his people. Perhaps it wasn't the best way to do so, but he was trying. Temari saw Shukaku. It tried to scare her. Showed her memories of her own fear and hatred.

But she wasn't afraid anymore. She looked directly into the eyes of the hideous and demanded to have her baby brother back. She beat the guilt of hatred, because she knew her love was stronger than the hatred ever was.

Sasori was angry at himself for being afraid. He felt bad because he was afraid. He wasn't supposed to have feeling, but somewhere in the piece of human he had left, the guilt remained. He was guilty because he had been too afraid to accept his grandmothers proposal of redemption. He betrayed his village, but his grandmother had overlooked that. She had offered him a way to return to his hometown. But he had been too afraid of what people would think of him. Chiyo had been his guardian, and he had turned down the help she offered, that he didn't really deserve. He felt guilty for causing the sad look in her eyes as her only grand-child walked away from her.

He had the courage now though. The courage to walk up to the illusion of his beloved grandmother and apologize. To apologize for causing her heartache. The guilt he once had disappearing along with the illusion.

Sakura felt terrible for being so ignorant. For ignoring the obvious truth, and putting her teamate under such stress. She ignored the truth that Sasuke wanted nothing to do with her, and would have done anything to get him back. By doing so she put Naruto under enormous pressure to get him back. But he promised he would get him, and she knew that she couldn't dissuade him from his objective. If she hadn't been so forceful, Naruto would be happier. He wouldn't feel guilty because he wasn't able to retrieve their missing teamate. Sakura cried seeing her teamates. But that's when she realized that that's what she always did. She always cried, and that's not the kind of kunoichi she wanted to be.

She walked up to the illusion of Sasuke and cursed him until he disappeared, and apologized to the illusion of Naruto. She knew now not to depend on them. She was ignorant once, but not anymore. And the guilt was gone.

Kisame knew he was a horrible friend. He and Zabuza had once been close. But he betrayed him. He gave all the information he had on Zabuza to the enemy, and merely watched as they attacked his friend. Sure Zabuza lived, but the look his friend had given him upon realizing who had told on him wasn''t worth it. It wasn't worth the money. Zabuza had relied on him. But he betrayed him. The guilt had always nagged at him. He'd always considered himself a man who went after what he wanted. Who's sole purpose was to live. But the anger in his friend's eyes' haunted him day and night. He was forced to watch the memory over and over again in his mind.

That's when he realized something. He may have done a bad thing in the past, but that moment helped him better himself. He was now a good friend to the very few he did have. He was thankful for that, and with that in mind, he no longer felt guilty.

Tenten was orphaned at a young age, and she had been taken in by her uncle. Her biggest guilt was being mean to him for no real reason. She had always been angry at him, because she always figured it was his fault that her parents were killed. He had been with them when they were killed, yet he had done nothing. Well, that's what she always told herself. But deep inside she knew that wasn't the case. There was nothing that he could have done differently. Their death had been an accident. No ones fault. She could hear herself in her mind. She was saying terrible things to her uncle. As she listened to herself, she realized that the main reason for her being so mean was because she never fully forgave her uncle.

She spoke above herself and proclaimed loudly that she forgave him, even though there really was nothing to forgive. That lifted a weight off her chest, and afterwards she apologized for being so mean to him. Hearing him say he forgave her took away her guilt.

Deidara always felt guilty about leaving his sister behind. Before leaving his hometown, he had lived with his younger sister. But she had never understood his ways, and he never understood hers. They had argued a lot, like siblings do. He could remember hearing her begging him to stay, to rethink leaving. But he had wanted to leave so badly. He wanted his art to be seen. So he left anyways. She had even offered to come with him, but he had refused. He could feel the guilt inside him as he was forced to listen to his sisters begging him not to leave over and over again.

And then he remembered something. He remembered sneaking back into his village to see his sister. He remembered being proud of who she had become. He no longer felt guilty because he accepted the fact that he may have let her fall, but she had learnt to fly.

Hinata had a hard time forgiving herself for the envy that resided in her heart. The envy she had to be in the place of her little sister. She was jealous, and she felt like a horrible person because of it. She felt guilty because she knew Hanabi deserved every compliment she earned. But she wanted so much to be the one that was accepted by all the clansmen. To be seen as capable. The feeling of jealousy was so strong within her, she had a hard time remembering why she was in that red room in the first place. She wanted to be her sister because she was strong, courageous, and a great shinobi. She wanted to be the pride of her clan. But she wasn't. It took her quite some time, but she soon realized that the envy she had to be in her sisters place was normal. As she listened to her father complain about her incapabilities, and hear him say how good her sister was, she felt a sense of pride towards her sister.

Her sister was great, and it was okay to be somewhat envious. But Hinata soon realized that she also had great quality's. Perhaps not the best quality's for a kunoichi, but quality's for a friend, sibling, daughter, or whoever else she may become. The guilt faded along with the envy.

Itachi's greatest guilt was the massacre. He wasn't at all surprised to be forced to relive that night over and over again. He was surprised though when he figured out that his greatest guilt wasn't causing harm to his brother, like he always figured it was. His greatest guilt was that he had never done anything more. He had so easily accepted that he would have to kill his family. He regrets not having tried harder to save them. There might have been something he could have done. He wished he could have changed things. And his guilt is not having tried harder. As he watched the night repeatedly, he kept thinking of different things he could have done. Things he could have done differently. Hundreds of different ideas flooded his mind. Maybe he could have saved his family...But it was too late now. His guilt disappeared only when he finally realized something very important. Something he hadn't fully accepted until then.

There really was nothing he could have done differently. The hatred his family had for his village had been too great. It was buried too deeply. He could never have destroyed that hate.

The room they all found themselves in stayed completely white even when Itachi stepped out of the room. There was no more guilt left on their consciences. The Master Dragon's powers were all awakened and ready to use. Nothing could down their spirits.

* * *

"You let them leave Madara." An angry voice spoke into the quiet room.

"You know I can't touch that pesky old man Lucifer. His magic is different than shinobi's chakra. In any case, I have to keep my identity a secret from them." A smooth voice replied in perfect calmness.

"I have given you strength and very valuable information Madara. Things that I can take back at any moment. I expected you to keep them in your sights at all times. You have disappointed me." The archangel's voice clearly showing his frustration.

"There is nothing that I could have done differently. You didn't want me to kill them because you didn't want the Dragon's power to disappear. What else could I have done to change what has happened? Anything else I could have done would have been countered by the old fool's magic." The Akatsuki leader wasn't fazed at all by Lucifer's anger.

"The Dragon's power is much too special to let it go to waste! I'm still unable to touch them, but the time draws near that I can. And when that happens, I will rule all. The only thing that stands in my way are those ignorant children. They have no idea of the power they posess. They can seal me away..."

"No, they can't."

The two had been facing away from each other, for the simple reason that neither wanted to look at the other, but with that sentence Lucifer turned around. Knowing this, Madara turned around too. Only their red eyes shone in the dark. One with eyes turned red because of the evil within him, the other because of the blood within him.

"Do not play games Madara." Lucifer growled.

"I don't play games. You told me once that the Dragon's sent their power down because only humans can seal you away."

"And?"

"To them shinobi are human, but when it comes down to the technical sense, we aren't."

"What are you talking about?" Lucifer spoke impatiently.

"A human has no chakra. We shinobi do. Because of this we are not really human. Our chakra makes us a different species. We closely resemble humans, but because of our chakra, we aren't."

"You're saying that...Those bothersome children won't be so bothersome in the end?"

"Exactly. They won't be able to seal you away, because only humans can do that."

"I should come see you more often Madara. You seem to always have good news for me..." Lucifer cackled evily.

"Hm." Madara had nothing more to say.

"I should return to my humble abode..." Lucifer spoke with obvious sarcasm. Hell wasn't a place even the fallen archangel could call home. "How is the Moon's Eye Plan coming along?"

"It's coming along just fine." Madara replied.

"Good. I have two weeks to prepare...I suggest you prepare as well. Because when their ritual fails, all Hell will break loose. That's a promise."

The ruler of Hell faded away into the darkness, his laughter the last thing to be heard.

* * *

AN: Explanations: I read somewhere red is the colour of guilt. The line 'a coward she is, a liar without fail' etc. was a Shakespeare insult I found and modified. I don't remember what play it's from though. And I only showed Ino's full guilt-trip because it would have been too long if I'd done all ten. Since Tenten has no past, I gave her one. Deidara's sister is because a girl in the manga calls him 'Deidara-nii-san' and I like the idea of him having a sister. And I made Lucifer the one to tell Madara about the Moon's Eye Plan.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!  
Thanks so much for reading!  
-MewMew


	14. Practice Makes Perfect

_Chapter 14 - Practice Makes Perfect_

"A room was created here in the Golden Empire that is nearly identical to the sealing temple you'll be going to, to do the actual sealing. It's in that room that you'll practice the ritual." Nanashi led them out of the red room and started leading them through the Empire once more.

"Can we meet the Dragon's?" Hidan asked abruptly. He'd been meaning to ask that since they got here. When people are young, they're often told stories about Prince's slaying Dragon's. To most, the Prince's were their heroes, but that wasn't the case with Hidan. He much prefered the Dragon's. (He always figured that's why the Dragon's were never killed in the stories his mother told him. They were the ones slaying the Prince's.)

"I'm afraid that's impossible. The three Master Dragon's are currently examining the extent of Lucifer's damage. They bring me reports from time to time, but I doubt they'll be returning before the eclipse." Nanashi replied.

Hidan was clearly disappointed, but said nothing else.

This time when they stopped in front of a door, it was actually two doors. Two pearly white doors, with golden handles. There were words inscribed above the door, but none of them could read it. It was written in some ancient language, either Latin or Greek. They couldn't tell, but this is was it looked like : _Aut viam inveniam aut faciam._

"What does that mean?" Tenten asked, pointing to it.

"It's an ancient Latin phrase meaning 'I will either find a way, or make one.'." Satoshi replied. He continued to walk with them, knowing that this is where they would probably need him most. The ritual wasn't very complicated, but they would need to learn to do it with distractions. Satoshi knew Lucifer would try anything to get them to take longer than necessary. The eclipse would be 70 seconds, and the ritual should take 55 seconds. They didn't have time to waste with distractions.

Nanashi pushed open the door, "Come inside." He walked into the room and they followed silently behind.

The room, to put it simply, was entrancing. Black candles lined the walls, all of them lit with dark purple flames. The room was circular, with a high ceiling. It was rocky, as if it were inside a cave. What made the room so beautiful, was the large pentagram painted in the center of the room. The room should have been dark, since the flames from the candles were such a dark colour. But the pentagram was painted white, and it brightened up the whole room. There were ten other candles around the pentagram. Five on the points, and five on the curves between the points.

"Each of you pick up a candle and stand exactly where it was. Stand on the line. Not inside it, not outside it." Satoshi started directing them. Nanashi stayed near the door and watched as the shinobi carried out the order. Satoshi knew more about these type of things, and so he would be the one telling them what to do. Nanashi would remain to make sure nothing bad happened, and to see how well they did.

"What happens if were not exactly on the line?" Deidara asked, picking up the candle, trying not to extinguish it.

"If you're more inside, you'll either be sealed away too, or the sealing won't work. And if you're more outside, the sealing won't work at all." Satoshi replied.

They all made sure to be right where they were supposed to be.

"Now, I'm going to tell you the incantation, and I want you to repeat after me. _Lucifer, tu exilium aquam, fugant ignem-_"

"What the fuck does that mean?" Hidan interrupted Satoshi.

Satoshi let out a long sigh, "The complete incantation is 'Lucifer, thou art banished from the waters, thou art banished from the flames, thou art banished from the winds, thou art banished by the earth. Thou art banished by the God's and all their creations. Thou shall be no more. Sealed forever more.'" He gave them the english translation.

"Any more interruptions?" Satoshi asked. When he received none, he said the entire incantation, "_Lucifer, tu exilium aquam, fugant ignem, spiritum ignem, terrae exilium. Tu exempta Dei et omnes creaturae. Tu non erit. Signatum in saecula saeculorum._ That's the incantation. For the ritual, you have to repeat it 5 times. This will take the full 55 seconds. Now repeat after me..." Satoshi said the first line, and they repeated after him.

"What language is this? Why can't we just say it in english?" Temari asked, after being told that she was pronouncing '_creaturae_' wrong.

"This is also ancient Latin. Spells don't have the same power when translated into another language. And for this particular ritual, we need to have all the power we can get."

They continued to repeat the incantation. This would be one of the most difficult parts. If they say one word wrong, it would ruin the entire ritual. They had to be perfectly in synchronization. Their accents had to be just right. Their speed had to be at the perfect rhythm. It all had to be perfect. If it wasn't, a dear price would have to be paid. Their lives.

None of them knew how long they spent standing there. They held the candles, long ago having realized this was no ordinary candle. It wasn't melting, and it couldn't go out. (Some of them realizing this after blowing on it.) But they wondered just why they kept repeating the incantation. They felt it was alright. Satoshi had stopped interrupting them quite some time ago.

"What are you expecting to happen?" Sasori asked after a while, tired of saying the incantation. His vocal chords couldn't take the chanting anymore. The others stopped as he said this, all of them wondering the same thing.

"I didn't have you unlock the powers for nothing. You must try to tap into them, and use them. It's with the powers that the sealing ritual is going to work."

"But how do we know when we've tapped into the powers?" Ino asked. The light feeling they had earlier was still lingering, but it felt like the power had disappeared.

"There will be two ways to know. The first, you will feel it, just like earlier. The second way to know that you have successfully tapped into the power, is that the candle you are currently holding will turn white. The same thing will happen during the real sealing. But when that time comes, you will be able to use the power at will, and you should never be holding a black candle." Satoshi explained.

"I know that none of you know this, but the time here is very different than your time. It goes a bit faster than you're accustomed to. The 336 hours that you had when you first arrived here until the eclipse, is now 200. I suggest you try harder." Nanashi added.

"We are trying!" Deidara complained, "But this isn't exactly easy now is it?"

"No, it isn't. But you must succeed. Try to tap into it like you would tap into chakra. The power is there, you just have to find it."

"Now, continue the incantation." Satoshi said, getting them back on track.

And so they started over again. Some of them closed their eyes, hoping it could help. But the difficult thing was trying to find something burried deep within them, while still saying the incantation. Some of them were more adept though. Doing these things was normal. It was really similar to meditating. The first flame to show any colour besides purple was Hinata's. She didn't see it because her eyes were closed, but she could feel it. The power was in full bloom inside of her now, just like before in the red room.

Itachi's flame grew whiter next. Following quickly behind were Tenten and Kisame. Their meditation practice while stuck in the ocean earlier had been helpful once more. Sasori's normal inner peace helped him find it soon after them. Sakura and Ino were right after, both of them being well connected to their hearts, and knowing how to get what they want from it. Temari was next, though she had quite a difficult time in doing so. But Hidan and Deidara were the ones with the most difficulty. Their flames flickered between purple and white.

But they had time. Not a lot of it, but enough. They managed to get their minds in a tranquil enough state to tap into their hearts and find the power there. Their flames weren't as white and bright as the others, but it would suffice.

"Never stop the incantation. I will speak, but never stop." Satoshi said in the middle of the incantation. None of them stopped chanting, but some of their flames flickered. "All of your flames are white, or as white as is acceptable. When the time comes to do the real ritual, Lucifer is going to be there. He will try to distract you. Say things to you. All it'll take is 15 seconds of hesitation. He knows this. He will be unable to hurt you physically, but keep in mind that he will say anything, anything at all, to get to you mentally."

"Always remember, that he doesn't want any good for you. He may promise things to you, but he won't follow through on them. That I can guarantee. He may try to convince you that his world will be better. That he'll bring peace. Do not believe him. Lucifer does not want peace for the worlds. Only destruction and mayhem. He wants people to suffer. He is cruel...But very persuasive." Satoshi continued to speak to them with a low, melodic voice.

"Lucifer will be in the center of the pentagram. When the real ritual comes, I suggest all of you keep your eyes closed. His eyes can see all, and can show you all. His eyes are a great help to his ability to be persuasive. If you look him in the eyes well...It might be the last thing you do. If this ritual fails, he will not hesitate to kill you all."

Satoshi spoke more to them. He kept an eye on their flames. When he first started speaking a couple of the flames were flickering, and most of the others were dim. But now they all shone. He could feel the power. The Master Dragon's powers were as powerful as they always had been, and he was hoping that, that would be enough to seal away the devil once and for all.

His eyes locked onto Nanashi's. The latter mouthed to him the amount of time remaining. Satoshi nodded. They were about as ready as they would ever be, he figured. The eclipse was near, and Satoshi had hope that they just might be able to pull this off.

_48 hours._

But they had to pull it off. There wouldn't be a second chance at this.

* * *

AN: Oh my gosh...Is she already updating again? What is happening? Yes, I know. I'm updating again in under a week. But I figured it out yesterday, and if I follow through, there should only be three chapters and an epilogue left. This has made me just so excited, I think this is going to be my main focus until it's done! Chapters will be coming out quickly, but not too quickly. The next few chapters will be quite long and will take me some time to write up. But I know where I'm going with this!

I hope this chapter wasn't too vague. I think it's alright. I made the incantation in latin because it was the prettiest one. Seriously. (Done on google translate...) I tried a few different languages, but they were too long, or had too many accents on the letters. Latin was as simple as it got. The random phrase over the door? No real reason for it. Just inspirational!

Thanks to my reviewers and readers!  
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
-MewMew


	15. Sealing The Angel

_Chapter 15 - Summoning The Archangel_

The Shiringu Tera didn't really look like they'd expected it to. They were teleported back into their world, Izuna and Satoshi coming with them, and found themselves standing at the base of a mountain. It was easy enough to tell that it was an old mountain. The grasses were tall, flowers were in full bloom all over the mountain, and the trees stood around 100 ft. tall. They could make out some mountain trails further away from them, but they looked unused.

"Remember what we have taught you." Izuna told them.

"And don't worry about the summoning part. It's hard to mess up. Just keep your focus on the ritual, and you should be fine." Satoshi tried to reassure them.

"Yeah, okay." Ino didn't sound very confident. The fear she had in her voice was the same fear that was in all their hearts. It was almost time.

"Here's the entrance," Satoshi struck out his hand and a door, covered in vines and grass, flung inward. It slammed violently against the wall. Behind the door was a passage that led into the mountain, "This will take you directly to the temple."

"Are you coming with us?" Sakura asked.

"No. Satoshi and I will be remaining out here. We are certain that Lucifer will not come alone. His demons aren't able to enter the temple, and by consequence, they will be forced out here. We will deal with them." Izuna replied.

"There are only a few precious minutes remaining. We must bid you farewell. May the Lord be with you." Satoshi said.

They hesitantly walked into the passage, guided by Hidan. He was using The Fire that had still been in his pocket to light the way. Once the door closed behind them, it was the only source of light. They walked, keeping a hand on the left wall. None of them knew how far they walked, but it felt longer than necessary. They were trying desperately to keep track of the time, but were finding it difficult.

"There's a light ahead." Hinata whispered. She was right behind Hidan.

"Yeah." Hidan confirmed.

They slowly approached the light source, and saw that it led into an area that looked just like the room they had been in during their stay at the Empire. It was nearly identical. The only differences were that there was a small hole in the ceiling, letting in one drop of sunlight into the cavern. It landed at the center of the pentagram. And the other difference was that the pentagram seemed dimmer. The same black candles were on the circle of the pentagram and on the walls. They were less nervous when they entered the room, because it was familiar territory. It gave them a confidence boost.

"We have six minutes." Sasori said, looking up at the hole in the ceiling. They were lucky for its presense because it would help them know the time.

"We should hurry then. The summoing doesn't take much time, but it's better to be ready ahead of time than to be late." Sakura went over to one of the candles and picked it up.

"Agreed. We'll do the summoning right away, and hold it until the eclipse begins. That's when we can start the ritual." Temari took her own candle. Everybody followed suit, getting into their places.

The pentagram was a pentagon with five triangles on the sides, and a circle around the whole. All of them stood on the circle, with a black candle in their hands. Itachi pulled a kunai out from his weapon pouch. He wordlessly cut his left palm, while holding both the kunai and candle in his right hand. Blood oozed out from the wound and started leaking down his hand. He gave the kunai to Ino, who stood on his right.

Ino cut her left palm, hissing at the sting, and handed it to Hidan. The kunai went from one to the next. Passing from Hidan to Temari, then Kisame, Sakura, Deidara, Hinata, Sasori, and lastly Tenten. As her blood covered the kunai tip along with her nine other comrades, she gave it back to its owner. Itachi hooped the end of the kunai onto his little finger, where it hung innocently, despite its cruel use.

"In case we die here tonight, I'd like you to know that I kind of like you guys." Ino said, looking at her teammates, and what she considered her friends. The friends she had before starting upon this journey gave her smiles. But they knew this wasn't directed to them. It was meant for their new friends.

"I'll say for all of us, that we kind of like you guys too, yeah." Deidara grinned, but there was a hint of nervousness there as well. It sounded too much like a farewell speech.

"Don't put words in my mouth, bitch! But I suppose it's kind of true..." Hidan agreed reluctantly.

"Don't call me bitch, asswipe, yeah." Deidara grumbled.

"You'll have time for pleasantries and arguments once this is over. Let's begin the summoning." Sasori intervened, taking note of the time. There were two minutes left until the eclipse.

They all glanced at each other, and at the same moment began the summoning. They put their left hand on their candle. The blood from their palm being absorbed by the candle. It started to glow an eerie red. The flame grew larger, but remained purple. They began to tap into the Master Dragon's powers, turning the candle white and the flame the normal red-orange colour. Together they pronounced the phrase that would bring Lucifer to them.

"_Conjuro te diabolus_."

Itachi threw the blood-tainted kunai into the center of the pentagram, as a sacrifice. Immediately their candles began to glow brighter. The light from the candles begun to light up the entire cavern, giving it a white hue. The shinobi had to close their eyes, for the light was much too bright. The pentagram began to shine bright beneath their feet. Those who could squint their eyes open a little could see a translucent wall forming on the sides of the pentagon. It looked like a barrier. The kunai was no longer there. Suddenly a large gust of wind flew through the cavern, despite it being an enclosed area, and all the lights and flames disappeared at once.

The candles relit themselves and began to shine white once more. The pentagram returned to a dim light. Everything seemed to have calmed down. But then they heard a laughter. A terrifying laughter. The laughter of a man who knew not how to laugh out of joy, but purely out of malice. Lucifer. He was in the center of the pentagram, cut off from them by a barrier. But the barrier couldn't cut out the sound of his voice.

"Haha!" The cold laughter resounded in the cavern, "It seems I've been summoned...The old fools doing, I've no doubt." A couple of the shinobi shivered. They kept their eyes closed and had no idea what he looked like, but his voice alone was enough to make them nervous. It had an angelic tone to it, but it had an empty evilness that couldn't be hidden. It was smooth and silky, but they knew they wouldn't want to hear it angry. The thought alone gave them chills.

They had been told not to speak to him, neither to look at him. And now they knew exactly why. Lucifer had the voice of a manipulator. The ten of them had to keep in mind that this angel, this devil, would kill them the second he had the chance.

"Children...All of you. Ignorance is bliss, I've heard. But perhaps not rightly so. You are all so ignorant...The old fool and the blind fighter told you what they call the truth. You believed them readily...I would have thought better of such well-recognized shinobi."

Even with their eyes glued shut, they could tell that the room was darkening. The eclipse was beginning. At the same moment they began the chant.

"_Lucifer, tu exilium aquam, fugant ignem, spiritum ignem, terrae exilium. Tu exempta Dei et omnes creaturae. Tu non erit. Signatum in saecula saeculorum..._" They tried desperately to ignore the words of the devil.

"They have lied to you! I want peace in these worlds. But before peace can be created, hatred must be extinguished. By destroying those worlds, I have taken away the evil. I am now rebuilding those worlds into worlds of peace. Perhaps the angel's don't see this as the 'right way' to bring peace, but it is the only way that will work."

Lucifer tried to sway them. But it wouldn't matter in the end. The second the ritual ended, they would be dead, the barrier will be broken, and he will be freed. Hell will take over, and he will be the true God. They weren't human after all, their bodies couldn't take the full ritual. The second the ritual would end and use the Master Dragon's powers to seal him away, it would be too much, and they would die.

He only tried to persuade them in case something went wrong, and Madara had been lying. But Lucifer doubted that. Madara had the same views as himself. War, hatred, revenge, deceit...Things both of them lived by. In a few seconds, he would finally be rid of his only threat.

"_Tu exempta Dei et omnes creaturae..._" The chant continued to echo throughout the cave.

"Little children, do you really believe that you hold the power to sealing me away? I am Lucifer, archangel and ruler of Hell...The power that was given to you is nothing compared to my own. Worthless words aren't enough. Tonight you will die." Lucifer continued to speak in his low, calm voice.

That's when a mistake came into play. Hinata opened her eyes. She opened them just a little, to get a look at the threat to all the worlds. But it was enough for Lucifer. Her eyes locked onto solid red ones. A beautiful face, large red eyes, high cheek bones and thin lips set into a sadistic grin. A white tunic slung over one pale shoulder, a black pin set on his upper chest. A closer look showed the design of a crown outlined with a thin red line. Blonde shaggy hair reached his ears, making Hinata certain he must have had blue eyes once-upon-a-time. Beautiful white wings jutted out from his back, but were forced to remain bent because of the barrier. Lucifer was floating a foot over the floor, though she couldn't see how.

She didn't have time to think of anything else before she was entranced by his eyes. Her mouth automatically continued the chant, despite the distraction. She blushed under his intense gaze, and felt ashamed of herself. But he was so beautiful...The fact that he was the bad guy almost slipped out of her mind.

She almost stumbled over her words.

She almost stopped chanting completely.

But she didn't, and that's what kept the mistake count at one. She could see images of things in his eyes. He showed her things to make her guilty, but she had no more things to be guilty for. That's when she realized the utter importance of the red room. By combating their guilt, they had not only pulled out the powers, but had also gotten a defense against Lucifer's eyes.

Hinata could tell that he was annoyed that he couldn't get her to mess up. Perhaps the 'old fool' wasn't such a fool, Hinata thought in Satoshi's defense.

The chant was repeated for a fifth time.

"..._Signatum in saecula saeculorum._" The last words of the chant echoed around the cavern.

"What is this?"

* * *

Madara watched from afar, the dark sky, the sounds of demons in the air, and the smell of blood in the wind. A fight was raging in the darkness that the eclipse produced. But he had not the heart to go any closer. He knew his own brother was there. The brother whom he had killed, simply to get the Sharingan from him. The eyes that now showed him the images of the world in disarray.

After a minute into the eclipse, he decided it was time to leave. The ritual was over. The lights coming from the mountain could speak for itself. But the sounds of angry demons could be heard from miles away, and added to what he knew of the result.

He turned his back on the mountain and started to make his way back to the Akatsuki base. But he walked, for he had lots to think about. As he could feel the earth shaking beneath his feet, he thought to himself.

'_Lucifer, your eyes see only the darkness in all...Those shinobi in there are as human as they could ever possibly be. Brother, I know you have yet to forgive for what I've done, but I hope this will be enough for you.'_

Even the darkest are guilty of something.

* * *

AN: Explanation: Madara's not really a good guy per say, he just felt bad. And I know his brother willingly gave him the eyes, but I'm pretending he didn't in here.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!  
Thanks for reading!  
-MewMew


	16. Demons and Earthquakes

_Chapter 16 - Demons and Earthquakes_

"_**What is this?**_" The angry voice of the fallen archangel echoed throughout the cavern.

The shinobi opened their eyes for a moment, but were forced to close them in seconds. A bright light burst from the barrier, almost as if it were breaking. But it wasn't. The light was the barrier being reinforced, strengthened. They could feel the Master Dragon's powers flowing through their veins, and being absorbed into the barrier.

A loud growl came from the angel's lips as he realized the truth of the situation. The light spun around him and slowly began to shrink. A pained howl was the last sound to be heard before the light disappeared, taking with it the flames from their candles. They did not light up again. The shinobi hesitantly opened their eyes, and once adjusted, could make out the form of Itachi's kunai laying on the ground innocently. Lucifer was sealed away within it, with no way of ever coming out of it again.

"So...This is a win for us right?" Hidan asked. He let his useless candle fall to the ground, and took out the bottle containing The Fire from his pocket. He used it to help them see a little better. Nobody had time to answer before the mountain began to shake violently.

"What the hell?" Temari exclaimed. They let go of their candles and went into their fighting stances. Hidan put away The Fire, as their eyes were becoming more used to the dark. Their eyes wandered the cave, wondering what was going on.

Small rocks and dust were beginning to fall from the ceiling, and that's when they realized that though the eclipse was over, the sky remained dark. Suddenly, Satoshi appeared in the center of the pentagram, wearing a surprisingly serious expression on his face. He picked up the kunai and put it in the depths of his robes. The shinobi were glad to see him, because if anybody had answers, Satoshi did.

"We must leave the temple immediately. The magical properties have disappeared, meaning the demons are trying to break in. They'll destroy the mountain within minutes if they continue like this..." A howl, like that of a dog or wolf, came from the passage between the temple and the outside of the mountain. "They're approaching!"

"Can we fight demons?" Tenten asked nervously.

"There's no other choice. Just try to stay alive."

That's when a dark shadow slowly stepped out from the passage into the temple. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but it looked like a large dog, and its bright red eyes shone in the dark. Its upper lip was pulled back to show all its pointy teeth. It looked like it would gladly rip them into tiny pieces if it had the chance.

"Hellhounds." Satoshi said as two more of the creatures entered the temple.

The dogs started to circle around the pentagram. The shinobi remained where they had been during the ritual. The hellhounds seemed hesitant to go any closer to the painted shape on the ground. They seemed almost...Afraid of it.

"They're afraid of the magical properties of a pentagram...Wait for them to attack. We need to stall as long as possible. Izuna is on his way to get the angel's."

"Can hellhounds be killed?" Kisame asked.

"No."

A large trembling shook the mountain. More dust and rocks fell from the ceiling.

"What's doing that?" Sakura asked, fear evident in her voice.

"Hundreds of demons trying to get to us. Some aren't as bright as our little friends here and don't know about the entrance." Another two hellhounds entered the cave, bringing the total to five, "Hells doors have been opened. The angel's will have to work hard to close them again..."

The hellhounds lunged forward, teeth bared. They seemed to have figured out that this pentagram was completely harmless. They were ready to fight. And kill.

"Defend yourselves!" Satoshi ordered them.

They all did the math quickly. Ten shinobi, five hellhounds. They paired off with the person who's fighting style they knew best. Or mostly, anyhow. Itachi and Kisame went together, as well as Deidara and Sasori. Their usual partner's. They knew all about each others styles. Ino and Sakura paired off together, not used to fighting together, but knowing the others skills, the same went with Hinata and Tenten. Tenten knew the Byakugan, and Hinata knew offensive fighters. Temari and Hidan paired off, though they knew little about each other. But they would learn on the job.

Temari spent a moment in a fret. She didn't have her fan anymore, and she couldn't remember the last time she fought without it. She explained this briefly to Hidan who gave her a disbelieving look. "It isn't the weapon that makes the fighter. It's the fighter that makes the weapon." He replied, throwing his scythe towards the hellhound. It dodged easily.

"You're right." She recomposed herself. She may not have her weapon, but she had all her other shinobi knowledge in reserve.

The shinobi were lucky for their speed, because the hellhounds were fast. Very fast. They could barely get a hit to it, without it dodging or trying to get to them with their teeth. Teeth sharper than their weapons. It didn't help knowing that the creatures couldn't be killed. Hellhounds were already dead after all. Another unhelpful factor was the trembling of the mountain. The more offensive fighters had to make sure not to help in the destruction of their hideout.

Tenten landed a kunai in the side of her hellhound. Sakura landed a bone-crushing punch to hers. Sasori's poison-coated senbon dug into the neck of his creature. Kisame's sword sent his hellhound flying into the wall. Hidan's scythe cut a large gash into the side of his demon. But the hellhounds just stood back onto its four paws as if those were nothing. The wounds healed up quickly.

So they continued to fight.

Hinata hit a valuable point on her hellhound. Ino landed a powerful kick to her creatures jaw. Deidara's bomb exploded next to his demon. Itachi's fire burned the hellhound all over its body. Temari slashed the hellhound's eyes with one of her kunai. But once again they stood back up. The wounds disappearing. The malice and pure evil coming from the hellhounds was unnerving. That's when the realized that they couldn't win.

How do you kill something that can't be killed?

Even Hidan was becoming frustrated. Now he understood how his oponents must feel. He looked around the cavern and noticed that Satoshi had disappeared. "Where the hell is the old fool?" Hidan yelled over the sounds of the fighting, growling demons, and the rumbling mountain.

"He disappeared ten minutes ago." Tenten replied, flipping backwards to avoid the hellhounds teeth. "I don't know where he went."

That's when thing began to go from bad to worse. It was bad enough fighting an enemy that couldn't be killed, but it became worse when the cave they were in began to fall to pieces. There were small rocks falling from the ceiling earlier, now larger rocks started falling. The small hole at the top of the cave became larger. The shinobi tried to defend themselves from the hellhounds while avoiding the rocks. The demons didn't seem troubled though. They couldn't die after all.

"Let's get out of here, yeah!" Deidara said, barely dodging the hellhound. He was avoiding using his bombs, knowing that the whole place would collapse if he used too many.

"There are more like these things waiting for us outside." Kisame reasoned.

"It's better than being crushed to death, yeah!" Deidara countered.

Before Kisame could retaliate, he had to roll out of the way to avoid a large rock, "Yeah...Maybe you're right." He replied when he stood back up.

"But we can't use the tunnel. It could collapse at any second." Sakura said.

"We can make it out by the ceiling." Sasori pointed out.

But they quickly realized that, that option wasn't much better. They could barely make out a creature that seemed to have the body of a woman from the waist up, and from the waist down the body of a large bird. Probably an eagle of some kind. There were three of them hovering over the top of the cavern, their large wings keeping them afloat. They couldn't quite fit through the entrance, for which the shinobi were thankful.

"Harpies." Itachi told them, when Hidan asked what the creatures were.

"Dangerous?" Temari asked.

"Very." Itachi replied, Sharingan ablaze.

"I think Satoshi's fighting the demons outside." Ino said after a moment.

"Why do you think that?" Tenten asked.

"The mountains shaking less."

That's when the ceiling entrance became wider. Wide enough for the harpies to fly inside the cave. Their long, messy hair flowing around them. Their high-pitched screeching joined the growling and barking of the hellhounds.

"Holy shit." Hidan dodge one of the creatures bird-like legs.

Dark storm clouds were blocking the sun. They floated innocently passed the entrance. The shinobi's sole exit. But the five hellhounds and three harpies were making leaving difficult.

_BAM!_

"The mountains coming down!" It was the last thing out of Ino's mouth before one of the harpies got a strong blow to her chest. She soared through the air and crashed into the wall, being knocked out cold.

"Ino!" Her best friend yelled out. Sakura went over to Ino's lifeless body.

But Ino was right. The mountain was collapsing. The wounds wouldn't matter when the whole place came down. Deidara's bitten arm, Tenten's sprained ankle, Kisame's ruined sword and scrapped hands, and Hidan's ripped up chest. It wouldn't matter. They would all be crushed by the falling rocks. If they somehow made it out alive, the demons would surely kill them.

"I don't think this is a win for us." Hidan said, holding his bleeding stomach. He was used to pain, but there must of been some kind of poison in the hellhound's claws because it hurt more than anything he'd ever felt.

It anything else was said, it wasn't heard. The sounds of the rocks cascading down from the ceiling, the howling of the hellhounds, and the screeching from the harpies blocked out everything.

But suddenly, the sun began to shine, or what they thought was the sun. A blinding white light was coming from the rather large hole in the ceiling. The demons became agitated by the light and tried to escape from the cave. They seemed horribly afraid of the light. It entered the cave, and the shinobi could make out large, feathery wings.

The light soon became too intense for their eyes, and were forced to keep them closed. They could see the light behind their eyelids, and covered them with their hands. It was too bright. But then the light vanished. They fell unconscious, the darkness the last thing to be seen.

* * *

AN: Only one chappie left! I enjoyed writting this chapter and I hope it was clear! I kind of figure you know what hellhounds and harpies are, but if you don't, just google it. I'd wanted this chapter to be longer...I apologize for its shortness! (This chapter's seriously short...)

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!  
Thanks so much for reading!  
-MewMew


	17. The End

_Chapter 17 - The End_

They all woke up within a couple minutes of each other. They realized two things immediately. The ones who had previously been injured, were no longer as such. The second thing they noticed was...

They were back at the Akatsuki base. At the same location they had been when they were first abducted. The trees, the grass, and the large rock to enter the base. Everything was the same way they'd left it two weeks ago. The sun shone brightly overhead, no dark clouds in sight.

"What the Hell is going on?" Hidan stood up off the ground and looked around. His hand flew to his healed chest. There weren't any traces of blood on his robe either.

"Do you guys remember what happened in the last two weeks?" Sakura asked, wondering if she was the only who remembered.

"Yeah, I remember too." Tenten said. The others remembered as well.

"So, if it wasn't a dream...What happened at the end?" Sakura asked.

"Satoshi said that Izuna was getting the angel's. I think they're the ones who helped us get out of there." Sasori suggested.

"I remember seeing wings, like angel wings, yeah." Deidara added.

"It doesn't feel real..." Ino said, "Maybe it was a dream."

"Maybe, but what are the chances that we all dreamt the same thing?" Kisame questionned.

"No. It happened." Hidan replied. He pulled out from his pocket two identical bottles, each containing a tiny flame.

"But..." Temari held in front of her, her fan, in perfect condition. She had found it next to her when she woke up, and was examining it carefully. She soon realized that it looked like her fan, but there was a small difference. There were two tiny folded angel wings engraved in the handle of the fan, where there had once been nothing. "Nevermind." She said in a passive voice, still eyeing her fan.

"So this means we've really been gone for two weeks..." Sasori's voice trailed off.

"Fuck! Pein's gonna be pissed!" Hidan exclaimed.

"We'll need an excuse, yeah..." Deidara looked thoughtful.

The girls shared a glance, and smiled. Temari finally put away her fan.

"I have one. Let's go." Itachi said. The five Akatsuki members entered the base.

The five kunoichi shared a similar thought as they followed them into the base.

Maybe being with the Akatsuki wouldn't be so bad.

* * *

AN: I've never written a chapter so short before...I really wasn't sure how to end this story, so here is the ending! This is the final chapter. After three years and two months, this story finally comes to a complete close!

This story has been completely edited, and so it shan't be touched anymore! Thank you all my readers and reviewers for bearing with me for such a long time!

My baby has finally left the nest...Now I understand what all those other authors were talking about! When you finish something you've worked so hard on...It's not easy letting go! But I can say that I'm proud of how this story turned out, and I'm proud of myself for finishing it, especially since I thought I wouldn't!

I hope you enjoyed the final chapter! Thanks to all those who've read until the end!  
Please leave a review telling me what you liked, didn't like, and what you thought of this story! I would really appreciate it!

Thank you!  
OWARI  
-MewMew


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